Is Marouane Fellaini the man Chelsea are missing?

by gdostephens

Upon seeing Marouane Fellaini’s imposing physique – all 6′ 4″ of him – it’s hard to believe that he’s only 24 years of age. Fellaini is a player who’s now been plying his trade for almost five years in the Premier League after signing with Everton for a club-record fee of £12.9m (€15m) from Standard Liège in 2008.

Everton had previously had a bid rejected by Liège but Moyes upped the ante and offered a bid they couldn’t refuse and Fellaini signed at Goodison Park with minutes to spare on Deadline Day, 2008. He’d broken the club’s record transfer fee, and Fellaini became the most expensive talent in Belgium. This was before anyone knew of Eden Hazard, remember!

Marouane broke into the Liège first-team at the tender age of 19 and only six months after making his league debut for the club, he found himself within the national team set-up. His inexperience meant he lacked discipline though and often found his name in the referee’s book. Upon his arrival at Everton, he racked up an alarming 10 yellow cards in his first 17 appearances for the club. He soon calmed down, though, and a couple of good performances started to see him win the fans over… and thus began the “afro” revolution at Goodison Park…

His time at Everton has been hampered with injuries over the years, suffering a few long-term injuries along the way that may have hindered his development, but every time he returned, he continued to impress. Although Everton’s finances may have seemed a stalling point in Fellaini renewing his contract at the club, the departure of Mikel Arteta allowed the board to offer Fellaini a much better deal – one which would keep him at the club until 2016. The club’s persistence paid off and were rewarded with more dominating performances from the Belgian, and has seen him since become the heart of Everton’s midfield.

Fellaini has gotten off to a flying start this year, too, scoring two goals in three games. The big Belgian single-handedly beat Manchester United and it was his goal that proved decisive, earning his team three points and himself a very well-deserved ‘Man of the Match’ award. He’s since sparked quite a lot of interest in the media, particularly after he’d come out to the Belgian press expressing his desire to leave Everton in the near future – which Fellaini later openly denied via his official Facebook account. Although he may deny such stories, it’s obvious that he’s ready to move on from his time in Merseyside. He may have become a cult hero amongst the Goodison faithful, but it’s apparent that he’s achieved all he can with the Toffees. He’s been at the club for almost five years, managed to enhance his reputation, and at the fruitful age of 24, he’s still got a left to offer.

The silver lining for David Moyes and Everton fans is that if Fellaini is on his way out, he’s guaranteed to bring in a large transfer sum. If they allow him to go in January, the price is always going to be inflated and I imagine the Belgian international would bring in a fee around the region of £25-30m. If they’re wanting resale value, it’s better for the club to let him go sooner rather than later; if he suffers another long-term injury, they’d find it really difficult to bring in such revenue.

Considering the fact that Chelsea are overloaded with attacking midfielders and Manchester United have recently signed Shinji Kagawa – both of whom surely have to be the favourites for his acquisition – where would Fellaini go? I doubt Arséne Wenger would pay the price Everton demand for the player which would exclude them from the run-in; Spurs snatched both Dembélé and Dempsey, leaving little space for the Belgian and Brendan Rodgers has rather sensibly admitted he doesn’t want to pay big fees for transfers. Once again, it leaves Chelsea and Manchester United to battle it out for his signature – unless he attracts interest from abroad, of course…

Fellaini, although often left isolated in an attacking role for Everton, is more than capable of being deployed in a more defensive role as he’s displayed on many occasions for Everton. He has all the attributes to be a great box-to-box midfielder, he just doesn’t hold the physique. He’s good at tackling, great with both feet and, more importantly, fantastic in the air.

Personally, I’d love to see Fellaini join Chelsea and occupy one of the spaces in the double-pivot that Roberto Di Matteo deploys. The departures of Michael Essien to Real Madrid and Raul Meireles to Fenerbahçe, there’s a significant lack of defensive midfielders within their ranks.

John Obi Mikel is arguably the only out-and-out defensive-minded midfield player Di Matteo has. The young Spaniard, Oriol Romeu, is a player with the potential to make that role his own, but Di Matteo seems to disagree with the fans and Romeu has barely featured since he came in. Barcelona hold a buy-back clause so could take him back if they so wish, but it’s believe that Valencia are currently keeping a close eye on him and his progression. As much as I rate Frank Lampard as a player, he’s not able to play in a defensive role and we have more exciting talents occupying the roles further up the pitch. He’s finally succeeded in European glory with the club and he’s soon going to become a bit-part player for the club, if he isn’t considered one already. A lot of Chelsea fans would like to see Ramires played as one of the defensive midfielders, but I have my doubts. He’s been utilised in so many different roles during his time at the club, I don’t think he has the discipline it takes to hold the midfield. He’s got a massive engine and his stamina levels are insane – they would go to waste if he was deployed as a defensive midfielder. If Chelsea were playing 4-4-2 with a box-to-box midfielder occupying one of the spaces, Ramires is your man. Ramires, unfortunately, isn’t your man when it comes to the double-pivot positions in a 4-2-3-1.

Fellaini would compliment Mikel well as he possesses more of an attacking threat, in the air and going forward. Mikel is a player that plays well according to who’s playing alongside him, and a defensive midfield partnership of Mikel-Fellaini is a recipe for success. It would fill a void in the team that needs filling and would I’m sure would please a lot of Chelsea fans.

Chelsea were rumoured to have been interested in the the Belgian when he was undergoing contract negotiations with Everton, and I’m sure he’d have been interested in a move to London had Everton not come to a mutual agreement on a contract extension. Fellaini put pen to paper on a five-year deal with Everton in 2011, so I don’t think Fellaini will go anywhere for under the region of £25m, leaving the club with a big profit from a big Belgian.