Ex Manchester United manager David Moyes made just one signing during his lone summer transfer window at Old Trafford, and it came on deadline day. That addition was Marouane Fellaini, and that was a fallback option to Nemanja Matic, the Scotsman now claims. Sir Alex Ferguson’s hand-picked successor says he never wanted Fellaini.
Fellaini, currently out for another week or so due to an injury he suffered while on international duty with Belgium, has always been linked to the brief but utterly disastrous Moyes regime in the eyes of many United fans. Of course, this perception has really changed lately as Fellaini has achieved and flourished under Jose Mourinho in a manner streets ahead of how he played under Moyes and Louis van Gaal.
Fellaini has become a very valuable part of this team while Nemanja Matic has been a stellar addition this past summer transfer window. David Moyes reflected on what could or what might have been.
“I never wanted Marouane Fellaini to be my first Manchester United signing,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“If you brought my staff in here and sat round with them and asked them what we planned to do, the last thing I wanted to do was sign Fellaini. I knew, coming from my old club, the look of him was never going to be (a right fit for the club). I’ve got to say, we looked at Matic as well. Matic at that time hadn’t done so well for Chelsea, had gone back to Benfica, and he was a consideration.”
“We looked at him, and in a way we did really need a more defensive type, maybe someone who would sit and play and make passes from the middle of the park, but we didn’t get a lot of the things we hoped for, and in the end we only got Marouane on deadline day otherwise we would have had no signings at all that summer.”
Moyes eventually settled on Fellaini after a window that saw unable to land targets such as Cesc Fabregas, Toni Kroos, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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