Fellaini to Scousers? You must be joking!
LIVERPOOL are not interested in signing Marouane Fellaini in the summer, despite reports claiming he could be on his way to Anfield.
The Belgium international is out of contract at United at the end of the season and is widely expected to leave on a free transfer having failed to negotiate a new deal.
Consequently he has been linked with plenty of teams, including Galatasaray, Roma, Monaco, and also a lucrative mega-money move to China.
But the more surprising transfer rumour came from France claiming Fellaini could be on his way back to Merseyside – to play for Liverpool.
French newspaper L’Equipe reported that Klopp’s side had drawn up a three-year contract for the 30-year-old and were leading the race for his signature.
But the Liverpool Echo reports there is no truth at all in the rumours and there would be ‘more chance of the Reds re-signing Christian Poulsen than swooping for Fellaini’.
Not only does Fellaini currently play for one of Liverpool’s fiercest rivals, but he also played for Everton before making the move to Old Trafford so he wouldn’t be welcomed with open arms at Anfield. THE parallels were plentiful at The Etihad on Saturday.
A Frenchman scored twice in a United Manchester derby 3-2 comeback 15 years on from the first.
Vincent Kompany out-jumped Chris Smalling six years after stooping above him in that decisive duel at the same end.
And Smalling scored in another 3-2 fightback.
A United fan has already provided the gif of Smalling’s 2011 Community Shield effort past Joe Hart alongside his Saturday strike and they are near symmetrical. The inswinging free-kick is delivered from the left, Smalling volleys with his right foot and the outcome is a goal.
Another United player struck twice six-and-a-half years ago, too – Nani. Lightning struck twice.
Or was it three times? A month before United recovered at City, they went 2-0 down at Crystal Palace and won in a game Smalling scored. More eerily, four of Smalling’s 16 United goals have come in matches they have won from a 2-0 deficit.
“My Twitter mentions yesterday,” Smalling tweeted on Sunday, posting an expletive emoji followed by another blowing a kiss.
This correspondent was guilty of scribing United’s Premier League obituary at the interval on Saturday and Smalling provided the intro after he was outmuscled by the canny Kompany.
It remains an ongoing issue that Smalling is still prone to glaring errors, irrespective of how much experience he accrues.
Smalling has a checkered record in derbies, having been rinsed in the 4-1 debacle under David Moyes in 2013 and branded ‘stupid’ by Louis van Gaal for collecting two, well, stupid yellow cards to be dismissed the following year.
On a weekend where Mourinho marked players’ cards, overlooking the available Luke Shaw, Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind for squad berths, Smalling started his 37th match of the season at the weekend and has lined up in all but three league fixtures since September 30. The three he sat out were down to injury. Smalling went into this season seemingly at the back of the central defensive pecking order. Eric Bailly and Phil Jones cemented themselves as the preferred partnership in pre-season and Victor Lindelof was signed for £30.9m. Smalling switched agents and his new representatives happily posted about interest in him from other Premier League clubs on their social media accounts. Marcos Rojo recently signed a fresh contract, leaving Jones and Smalling in jeopardy. Their deals expire next year and, amid United’s interest in Toby Alderweireld and Samuel Umtiti, it is feasible there will be an outgoing to accommodate the incoming. There is something admirable about Smalling’s resilience as he approaches the end of his eighth season with United. At Palace last month, he was haphazard against the profligate Christian Benteke, and committed an amateurish error for Patrick van Aan- Samuel Luckhurst