United in late bid to keep fellaini at Old Trafford
UNITED want to retain Marouane Fellaini despite the player’s apparent desire to leave the club.
It is understood the Belgian is set to end his five-year stint at Old Trafford when his contract expires at the end of the month and that United are virtually resigned to it.
But it is believed the Reds have not completely given up on getting the Belgium midfielder tied down to a new deal, with an offer remaining on the table to keep him.
Fellaini started just two Premier League games since the turn of the year and has been linked with a move away for some time, with Arsenal, AC Milan and Paris St Germain all said to be interested.
Jose Mourinho has expressed his desire to keep the former Everton man, who moved from Goodison Park in 2013.
Speaking after Fellaini came off the bench to score a lastgasp winner against Arsenal in April, Mourinho said: “The position is that we are almost there, but in football almost is not enough.
“I want to see the white paper with the United crest and Ed Woodward’s signature and Marouane’s signature.”
An unnamed top-six Premier League side is understood to have shown firm interest in signing the 30-year-old on a free transfer, with Fellaini now seemingly swayed by the offer of more regular football. SILENCE. Stunned silence.
“Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board,” the newsreader confirmed.
Shakhtar Donetsk’s players and staff watched on, horrified, inside their hotel rooms as pictures emerged of the wreckage falling near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast on July 17, 2014.
The team had been preparing for their final pre-season game of the summer, against Lyon, following a training camp in Austria and Switzerland and were due to return to Ukraine for a Super Cup clash with rivals Dinamo Kiev afterwards.
Three months into the worst separatist conflict in the former Soviet Union since it crumbled in 1991, they knew they would return to an even bleaker situation than the one they left weeks previously.
For six players - Douglas Costa, Fred, Dentinho, Alex Teixiera, Ismaily and Facundo Ferreyra enough was enough. They refused to board the flight home.
Tellingly, Fred was the first to reverse his decision just three days later. Mircea Lucescu, who was the Shakhtar boss at the time, told M.E.N. Sport: “Fred realised what he did was not correct and continued to play for us.
“I understood that he had a good character. He showed respect to the club and his team-mates and stayed loyal to his contract.
“It was important for someone who was 20 years of age. I realised he could have a very good future.”
Lucescu brought Fred to Shakhtar a year previously.
Although the Brazilian had made his name as an energetic attacking midfielder at Internacional, Lucescu decided to use him in a deeper-lying midfield role as he already had Willian, Bernard and Taison at his disposal.
It proved to be an inspired decision.
Veteran Tomas Hubschman would ultimately lose his place to the young upstart, but he has nothing but fond memories of his time with the Brazilian.
“Fred was a young, kind, cheerful and energetic boy from Brazil - what more could an older player like me ask for?” he told M.E.N. Sport. “At his age, I think he knows what he wants and goes for it. Both on and off the pitch.” Recognition and trophies followed, but Fred’s rise was not to everyone’s taste. Thinking he was the unfortunate namesake who was made a scapegoat for Brazil’s 8-1 World Cup defeat to Germany, a section of supporters booed his name as it was read out pre-match on his home international debut against Mexico in 2015. Not that his international manager and idol, Dunga, was too bothered. “Fred is a strong, determined player and even when he was younger he won the respect of the more experienced players,” he told M.E.N. Sport. Fred was then called up for the Copa America and started Brazil’s final two group games before a routine doping test changed his life forever. After testing positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a masking agent Fred blamed on medication Mircea Lucescu