Yesterday Marouane Fellaini made it publicly known that he would announce on Sunday where he would be playing his club football next season. One could infer yesterday, given this development, the Belgian would be staying on at United.
Typically, whenever an athlete does this kind of Lebron James style “The Decision” routine, they almost always stay put at their current location. (Which is very ironic, because Lebron actually went to a new team with his “Decision.”) Today saw multiple reports confirming that Fellaini is indeed staying at Old Trafford, on a lucrative two year deal.
This is a surprising development, given how the transfer narrative linking Fellaini to Arsenal had picked up a lot of traction; in the wake of Fellaini rejecting United’s earlier offers.
However, the Daily Mail reports that he’ll receive a new contract extension that will be “worth in excess of £100,000 a week.”
The Mail mentions how “Fellaini has been linked with Arsenal, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain as well a number of clubs in Turkey, China and Holland.”
Fellaini is definitely a very polarizing player, and within the United fan base, he’s not exactly beloved. There is a fair amount of United fans who are not exactly happy about this Fellaini development today. Some United supporters are upset that the re-signing of the Belgian will change the club’s transfer policy this summer, and they will then abandon pursuit of their current midfielder targets.
That is entirely possible, as Fellaini is certainly a selection favorite of Mourinho’s, but there is still six weeks of the transfer window left, and that’s plenty of time to add another midfielder or two.
United have been linked to Paris Saint-Germain’s Marco Verratti, Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic and Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic among others, and if any of those deals are/were really going to happen, it’s hard to fathom the club nixing it just because Fellaini re-signed.
Additionally, the midfield has already seen Fred in, and Michael Carrick out (retirement/move to coaching). Fred will obviously see a lot more playing time this upcoming season than Carrick did this past campaign, so it’s looking like Fellaini will face increased competition for playing time in 2018-19.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud and YouTube. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to any and all of his.