Manchester United were not the best buyers of the transfer deadline day sales and possibly not the worst as they eventually saw the Marouane Fellaini move through, on the eleventh hour of the summer transfer window.
Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini signed a £27.5m deal with United, shortly before the transfer window closed by Monday midnight.
United had made a joint bid of £28m for both Fellaini and full-back Leighton Baines in August, which the Toffees had described as “derisory.”
“I have worked with Marouane for five years and I’m delighted he has decided to join Manchester United. He is a player with great ability and strength and I think he will make a real difference to our squad,” manager David Moyes said.
However, the Premier League champions failed in their attempts to sign Athletic Bilbao midfielder Ander Herrera and Everton full-back, Baines, before the deadline.
They were also left waiting on a surprise deal for Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao which is yet to be confirmed.
Scotsman, Moyes, could probably be nursing a bit of a disappointment after his pursuit for Cesc Fabregas, and Thiago Alcantra failed to materialise, while the latter had long moved to German champions Bayern Munich.
But many are United fans, who have wondered why United has kept it long to trigger Fellaini’s £23.5m release clause earlier and, bemused with the ‘Red Devils’ having to pay almost the same amount earlier offered for the Everton pair in landing just the Belgian.
All said and done, Moyes, who worked with the 25-year-old midfielder at Goodison Park insists he has not bought out of panic and sees the signing as capable of adding depth to his squad.
“He is a very good player and a good technician. He has the ability to score goals and play in several different positions in the midfield. I think that’s an area where everybody felt we could do with strengthening.
“He will give us different options in different games in terms of where we can use him. He’s still young and improving. For me, he’s been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League over the last few seasons.
“If he can join a club like Manchester United and continue to improve, hopefully we’ll have a real good player on our hand,” he added.
The Brussels-born player started his football career at Anderlecht at the age of 8. He signed a £15m club record deal with Everton for five years from Standard Liege in September 2008 and went on to make a total of 163 appearances for the Toffees scoring 32 goals.
He has notched up 42 caps for the Belgian national team since his international debut in 2007 and scored seven goals.
