FELLAINI UNITED WILL WIN NOTHING WITH JUST KIDS!
“Jose was sacked too quickly... he needed time”
MANCHESTER United have played 31 games since Marouane Fellaini left for China. They have won just 11 of them.
It is a worrying sequence that’s cast a dark shadow over Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign. Not that Fellaini, 31, is taking any pleasure from United’s plight, though that’s not to say he doesn’t have forthright views on why things are unravelling at Old Trafford.
His thoughts on the use of social media immediately after matches are particularly blunt.
‘You see some players go straight into the dressing room after games and go straight on to social media. It’s wrong,’ says Fellaini.
There is no animosity as he discusses where he believes it has gone wrong at his former club. As Fellaini explains, he had ample time to digest the fact that his United career was drawing to a close, as he made just one substitute appearance in Solskjaer’s opening four Premier League games in charge.
His decision to leave United was effectively made when he was left on the bench for the FA Cup third round tie against Reading on January 5. Twenty-five days later he was heading to the Chinese Super League, signing for Shandong Luneng Taishan.
Yet United, and their recent habit of sacking managers, is never too far from his thoughts.
‘They brought in David Moyes, they didn’t give him time. They brought in Louis van Gaal, they gave him two years and we started to do some things, he won the FA Cup, but after that they sacked the manager because they want to win quickly,’ he says. ‘They were too quick to sack Jose Mourinho because a manager like that comes and he needs a lot of players to do his own philosophy. He wanted to build his team but after two and a half years they sack him because the results were not there.
‘It’s not easy to build a team in that time. You need more than two years. That’s the problem, they have to find a solution together. I don’t know what they will do with Ole. Mourinho, for the first season, did amazingly, he improved the team, won things. OK, the second season was a bit more difficult but he tried and did his best to help the team.’
Alex Ferguson’s exit caused more upheaval than anticipated and Fellaini says United remain in transition. He believes they must walk before they try to run. Clinging on to Tottenham and Chelsea’s coat-tails should be United’s priority, not trying to keep pace with Manchester City and Liverpool. But he also says the new philosophy of trusting in young players will have its ups and downs. Indeed, Fellaini’s departure appeared to signal the start of a change to their transfer philosophy.
Where Mourinho focussed on signing ready-made players, the Solskjaer regime seems committed to regenerating United’s squad with a younger profile of player.
Experienced players such as Alexis Sanchez, Ander Herrera and Romelu Lukaku have followed Fellaini out of the door, with youngsters Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Dan James and Scott McTominay thrust into the team. Record signing Harry Maguire has helped offset the team’s inexperience, but Fellaini fears the lack of know-how is at the root of United’s problems.
‘Now you have a new manager, they wanted young players and that’s what happens when you play with just young players — they will be up and down, up and down,’ he says. ‘Of course, you can’t play with just young players, you need a mix. To win titles, to win big games you need experience. You can win with young players but not every game.’
Fellaini is adamant he left Old Trafford with no regrets. United’s Europa League and League Cup double in 2017 and the secondplaced Premier League finish in 2017-18 were the highlights of his five and a half years at the club.
The Cup double was almost dismissed as hardly the sort of success United were accustomed to. What Solskjaer would give for that sort of success now.
Fellaini is happy adapting to life in the East. ‘China is good, it’s a new culture, a new country, I’ve enjoyed it,’ he says. ‘It’s a different atmosphere, the intensity is not the same, the crowd is not the same but it’s a new challenge. It was time for me to leave Europe. I wanted a new challenge and I’m very happy. I don’t regret it.
‘I played five and a half years for Manchester. My first season was a transition. I know I didn’t have a great season. But after that I played my games, played well and won things. OK, I didn’t win the Premier League but that’s part of football. Manchester City was a strong team and it was difficult to battle against them.
‘But I did some great games, scored some important goals, so for me I was very happy with my time in Manchester.’
Unfortunately, Old Trafford is not quite so cheery right now.