Marouane Fellaini | 2013/14 Performances

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Lance Uppercut

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We had no qualms of paying 4m more for Fellaini when we could have got him cheaper and gave him a pre-season at United but balked at paying €6m for Herrera at the same time. You seriously don't see why people have a problem with that?

These "people" would have had a problem no matter what happened yesterday.
 

charleysurf

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To be fair to Fellaini... he should be judged as 23.5m signing... our incredibly poor lack of planning isn't his fault after all.

What's the difference between the judgment levels for a 27.5m and a 23.5m player mind? Answers on a postcard

He should be judged as player, end of story. Christ, the same muppets who think United should be bidding 50m on random players give a feck about a few million?
Jesus we have some embarassing "fans" that would be better suited to a sugar daddy club.
 

charleysurf

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We probably haven't even paid anything near his release clause fee, yet.

I can see this deal having a few add-ons in there, if we've paid over £20m upfront I'd be very surprised. People fail to release that if we paid the clause we would have had to pay the £23.5m upfront, this way we save money in the immediate future, but yes potentially will end up paying more in the long run.
Stop talking sense.
 

Siorac

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Have to admit I'm also very confused by this, not least because Fellaini (at this stage) is a much more established player. We overpaid badly for him, and had we paid what it would have taken to get Herrera we would have overpaid hideously for him. Why is it unacceptable to get shafted by Everton but would have been brilliant to get shafted by Bilbao?
Release clause.

How do people not understand this? Fellaini had a release clause, Herrera had one too. We paid more than Fellaini's clause but refused to match Herrera's. Why? We'll probably never know. If we wanted him, why didn't we just pay him up if we were ready to hideously overpay for one of our other targets who could have been gotten a lot cheaper?

Fellaini played 177 games for the team of a top league, Herrera played 153 games for two La Liga sides. Not a massive difference in terms of experience on the biggest stage so I'm not sure how we can say that Fellaini is more established. Yes, he's an international; I'm fairly certain Herrera would be as well if he happened to be Belgian. The big lump is just better known in England, is all.
 

Tribec

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As far as we know it's a straight sale of £27.5m, which to me is about right in the current market value for a player like him. Yes, he had a release clause, but that's not to say Everton wouldn't have added in a sell on fee clause or add on's to that price tag. Fellaini is the type of player we've needed for a while, even going as far back as 09, when it became clear Hargreaves wasn't going to be fit enough. We've lacked a toughness in the midfield since then and whilst Fletcher could do that job, his decreasing fitness levels has left us short of that type of player. I think he'll do well for United, and whilst expensive he's not going to be flashy, it's going to be another Carrick type signing in that it will take a while before people see what he's adding to the team.
 

Lance Uppercut

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Release clause.

How do people not understand this? Fellaini had a release clause, Herrera had one too. We paid more than Fellaini's clause but refused to match Herrera's. Why? We'll probably never know.
Right. So why dwell on it?
 

Siorac

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You don't know how much more Bilboa wanted for Herrera. It certainly was going to me more (including tax) than this "buyout clause".
But now you want to use that as a stick to beat a player who will be playing for us?
It's not a stick to beat a player. It's a stick to beat Woody and co. who 1) either were too stingy, or 2) went in blindly again as in the case of Fábregas and 3) in any case they were way too late to open negotiations for Herrera.

My problem with Fellaini isn't that we haven't signed Herrera and it's not even that we hideously overpaid for him, though that is an issue as at that price he can't be viewed as a dispensable stop-gap signing. My issue with Fellaini is that I don't think he's good enough.
 

charleysurf

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Release clause.

How do people not understand this? Fellaini had a release clause, Herrera had one too. We paid more than Fellaini's clause but refused to match Herrera's. Why? We'll probably never know. If we wanted him, why didn't we just pay him up if we were ready to hideously overpay for one of our other targets who could have been gotten a lot cheaper?
.
The "realease clause" for Herrera would have had 15m added in taxes FFS!
 

Siorac

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The "realease clause" for Herrera would have had 15m added in taxes FFS!
Bayern found a way around that, we could have done too; by all accounts we even had the lawyers who sorted out the Martinez deal working for us. For some reason, however, we decided to start trying two days before the end of the transfer window. Which was stupid.
 

Cina

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That's kind of a hysterical reaction to the assertion we shouldn't believe the print media.

This window has been slightly more transparent than a few recently, but not really any different in terms of activity, that's pretty much a fact? Also it's been one that answered an age old question, a new type of CM, which is also a fact. I'm happy with that and not going to get too worked up about the mechanism for now, even if it is a disaster, I'm willing to give them one shoddy window to get their act together as the bottom line is quite good. We have a decent lump in CM.
It was clearly intentionally an OTT post just to prove my point, not sure how you can't see that?

It wasn't really different in terms of activity, I guess, it's how it was handled that's the problem. We overpaid by 4m, we publicly failed in attempts to get Fabregas, Herrera, Baines, Coentrao. We waited until the end of the transfer window to actually get Fellaini. It's not like this is all gossip, these are hard core facts released by the clubs themselves.
 

Siorac

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So you have written him off before even playing a game for United?
No, I have a bloody opinion about him. Jeez, this place. I've seen him plenty of times for Everton.

Does it impact his career in any way if I express my opinion about him on a discussion forum which is meant for expressing opinion? Does it hurt him somehow? Or why does it matter? Am I not entitled to thinking he's not good enough?
 

Chabon

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Release clause.

How do people not understand this? Fellaini had a release clause, Herrera had one too. We paid more than Fellaini's clause but refused to match Herrera's. Why? We'll probably never know.
"We'll probably never know"? Really? It's quite clearly because paying over 30 million pound for a player in his mid-20s who's never even been capped is fecking insane. I know there was a movement to turn him into the next Xavi because we'd been linked with him, but he's clearly nothing truly special. We baulked at paying an absurd fee for a merely okay player, and, to be frank, we should have told Everton where to stick it too.

Fergie would never have been as afraid of moaning fans as Moyes clearly is.
 

Cina

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I hope Fellaini succeeds here, maybe he will do a Carrick. Lord knows we need him to.

Of course, he could do an Ashley Young too. Let's see.
 

Red Hand Devil

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"I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie..."
While that may be true, we have been bitching about United's failure to identify and close signings for years now. So let's bear that in mind.
That's true alright man. Congrats on getting to the All-Ireland Final by the way. Hope ya's win mate, great football!

Back on topic. CM has been our Achilles heal for years alright, but we thought we had that licked with Fletch, Hargreaves, Pogba & Morrisson etc - that didn't turn out great though. We just didn't want to spend big on CM's under Fergie (post Keano), he got great milage out of Scholesy & Giggsy though, but at least Moyesy doesn't seem to have that blindside. Most top clubs in Europe have bought their CM's - we've been tryin to breed them & that hasn't proved fruitful, although Adnan looks a fantastic prospect, the jury is still out on "Clevz" though..
 

Lance Uppercut

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It was clearly intentionally an OTT post just to prove my point, not sure how you can't see that?

It wasn't really different in terms of activity, I guess, it's how it was handled that's the problem. We overpaid by 4m, we publicly failed in attempts to get Fabregas, Herrera, Baines, Coentrao. We waited until the end of the transfer window to actually get Fellaini. It's not like this is all gossip, these are hard core facts released by the clubs themselves.

I would guess that Moyes wanted one of either Fabregas or Afro Thunder. We were still hopeful of landing Fabregas and unfortunately, the clause expired.

Once we had given up on Cesc, it was typical brinkmanship. Wait until the last minute and hope to get the best deal. Unfortunately, Everton held the cards and Woodward has ended up under the bus.
 

shaggy

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Correction you have seen him play for Everton plenty of times. He was the shining diamond in a bucket of coal at Everton here he will be surrounded by better players and the focus of the play wont be always on him.

Moyes also must have had some doubts seeing as the signing was clearly a panic one at the last minute. Moyes was wary of paying £24 million for him weeks ago and in the end buckled as buying no one would have been worse.

So you admit he will improve the team, but also he isn't what we should aspire to? That doesn't make sense to me.

He will improve us, especially in big games where we tend to get overrun in midfield. He's not pretty, he may have huge hair but he will give us something we've lacked for a while. I don't see us getting bullied in midfield at all now. He will change that.

Walcott would improve the team. Doesn't mean I particularly want him here.
 

Siorac

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"We'll probably never know"? Really? It's quite clearly because paying over 30 million pound for a player in his mid-20s who's never even been capped is fecking insane. I know there was a movement to turn him into the next Xavi because we'd been linked with him, but he's clearly nothing truly special. We baulked at paying an absurd fee for a merely okay player, and, to be frank, we should have told Everton where to stick it too.

Fergie would never have been as afraid of moaning fans as Moyes clearly is.
Yes, indeed. But we ended up paying 'an absurd fee for a merely okay player' anyway. At least we should have showed some consistency by holding out for real absolute top class if a player like Herrera isn't deemed good enough.
 

Red Hand Devil

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"I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie..."
That's kind of a hysterical reaction to the assertion we shouldn't believe the print media.

This window has been slightly more transparent than a few recently, but not really any different in terms of activity, that's pretty much a fact? Also it's been one that answered an age old question, a new type of CM, which is also a fact. I'm happy with that and not going to get too worked up about the mechanism for now, even if it is a disaster, I'm willing to give them one shoddy window to get their act together as the bottom line is quite good. We have a decent lump in CM.
That's social media for ya man. In the past, all we had to rely on was the tabloids & teletext / ceefax - the good aul days :)
 

Cina

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I would guess that Moyes wanted one of either Fabregas or Afro Thunder. We were still hopeful of landing Fabregas and unfortunately, the clause expired.

Once we had given up on Cesc, it was typical brinkmanship. Wait until the last minute and hope to get the best deal. Unfortunately, Everton held the cards and Woodward has ended up under the bus.
Yeah possibly, I'd find it hard to believe that the club would want one or the other though, two very different players after all.
 

gaz1185

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Yeah, there's so much different opinions on that (no tax, Bayern paid no tax, or VAT which you can claim back, or IVA etc.) it's pretty unclear what the actual cost to United would have been.
If United had done it right, paid the cash along with Herrera and deposited the fee as two entities - rather than a individual - then the transfer would have been exempt from tax or VAT.

Gotta admit I think we knew this & it makes me seriously think there was some other motive for why the deal didn't go ahead.
 

NinjaFletch

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Yeah, there's so much different opinions on that (no tax, Bayern paid no tax, or VAT which you can claim back, or IVA etc.) it's pretty unclear what the actual cost to United would have been.
No its not, its pretty clear that the tax we would have paid is £0. It might have been a slightly complicated process to go about not paying it, but theres no way we would have.
 

Ish

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If United had done it right, paid the cash along with Herrera and deposited the fee as two entities - rather than a individual - then the transfer would have been exempt from tax or VAT.

Gotta admit I think we knew this & it makes me seriously think there was some other motive for why the deal didn't go ahead.
Yeah tbh, I'd rather not know the reason. I'm pissed off enough. Really a big fan of Herrera. :(
 

moses

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I have no idea either, yet.
Yeah possibly, I'd find it hard to believe that the club would want one or the other though, two very different players after all.

Personally, I think we would have gotten both if it was possible, but one of them might have been the sum total either. Although they are different, the squad could be used to accommodate either to good effect? Anything is possible.
 

Ish

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No its not, its pretty clear that the tax we would have paid is £0. It might have been a slightly complicated process to go about not paying it, but theres no way we would have.
Agreed. I didn't think the tax was the issue either. I just replied to someone in this thread who said we were going to pay an additional 15M in tax.
 

Chabon

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Yes, indeed. But we ended up paying 'an absurd fee for a merely okay player' anyway. At least we should have showed some consistency by holding out for real absolute top class if a player like Herrera isn't deemed good enough.
My attitude was if we're going to kick Cleverley out of the first team it should be for someone truly world class, much like Van Persie's quality was what justified demoting Danny. Fabregas or bust, in other words. Considering the stick Moyes is getting for signing just the one CM, it stands to reason that he simply couldn't take that attitude because of our moaning gobshite fanbase.
 

Cina

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Personally, I think we would have gotten both if it was possible, but one of them might have been the sum total either. Although they are different, the squad could be used to accommodate either to good effect? Anything is possible.
I do too, I don't really blame the club for Fabregas, except making it so public was a bit silly is all. I'd have been a lot more confident about using a player like Fellaini in midfield if we had someone as absurdly creative as Fabregas in there too, and a three man midfield with them and Carrick would've been great in the big games. It's a shame it was never possible. I'm not sure Carrick and Fellaini alone is going to solve creativity issues, that's why we need Kagawa & Rooney more involved and/or our wingers to get back to form now.
 

Lance Uppercut

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Yeah possibly, I'd find it hard to believe that the club would want one or the other though, two very different players after all.

True, though it has happened in the past. We wanted Collymore and bought Cole at the last minute, for example.

I think managers make a list of targets with varying tactics in mind.
 

Bilbo

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Agreed. I didn't think the tax was the issue either. I just replied to someone in this thread who said we were going to pay an additional 15M in tax.
Its more likely to be that we had to pay the full fee up front. Nobody wants to do that anymore.
 

ArmchairCritic

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I've always wondered why Fellaini doesn't nest the ball in his barnet and run, kinda like the seal dribble but utilising hair. He's got great elbows to protect himself too.
 

moses

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I have no idea either, yet.
I do too, I don't really blame the club for Fabregas, except making it so public was a bit silly is all. I'd have been a lot more confident about using a player like Fellaini in midfield if we had someone as absurdly creative as Fabregas in there too, and a three man midfield with them and Carrick would've been great in the big games. It's a shame it was never possible. I'm not sure Carrick and Fellaini alone is going to solve creativity issues, that's why we need Kagawa & Rooney more involved and/or our wingers to get back to form now.

I think with Fellaini and Carrick as a platform we can do what we want with the front 4. And we have enough creativity in the squad in my opinion, just unlocking it is now Moyes' job.
 
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