The Rumour Mill

Fellaini comments on Chelsea rumours

08/02/2013 |

Comments (26)

Marouane Fellaini says there is no escape agreement in his contract, that he has had no contact with Chelsea, and maybe he would stay with Everton if they qualify for the Champions League.

"I have heard about Chelsea monitoring me, but I have never spoken with them," Fellaini told Belgian media outlet sportwereld.be. "Throughout my time at Everton, there has been word on the grapevine of interest from some of England's top teams, but I have never personally sat round the table with any of them.

‘If Chelsea want me, they need to come up with something, but they have not done so far. For now, I am very happy with Everton. We are fifth, and if we can climb just one more place, and stay there, we can look forward to playing in the Champions League. Would that make me stay? Maybe yes, because Everton are the team who brought me to England. I have a very good relationship with the manager and my team-mates, and the club are like my family.

"People are talking about Chelsea as if I have already signed, but I am an Everton player, and maybe I will finish the three years left on my contract. If I do end up leaving, it would be up to the club to decide on the price. I have all sorts of clauses in my contract, but there is no fixed fee for releasing me.

"The Premier League is the best in the world, but I don't have a dream team I want to go to. If I do leave Everton, it would be to a club who really want me and a manager who has really good plans for me. People seem to think that Eden Hazard's presence at Chelsea might tip it their way. He is a very good friend, but so too are Mousa Dembele and Christian Benteke, so that wouldn't influence anything.

‘At least I am not as famous or popular as Wayne Rooney, but I have got a hairstyle that stands out. That, plus the fact I have been at Everton five years now, means I do tend to get spotted in the street these days.' Fellaini admitted his hopes of facing Man Utd on Sunday are in the balance, after missing the Slovakia game with a hip injury he picked up against Aston Villa.

"It still hurts, and it was impossible for me to play against Slovakia," he said. "My health is the most important thing, but if I can make it, I certainly will, because I love playing against United. I scored in a 1-0 win against them at Goodison on the opening weekend of the season, and it was a little bit my match. I couldn't have done it without my team-mates, though, and I hope to be out there with them again on Sunday. We will just have to wait and see."

Original Source: Daily Mail Rumour source ranking:
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Reader Comments

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Bobby Mallon
589 Posted 08/02/2013 at 15:33:54

Well done, Felli.

I hope we can make Champions League and you stay for ever.

Steve Edwards
591 Posted 08/02/2013 at 15:35:42

Interesting what he said about there being no buy out clause. The media have been talking as if this was fact. That's good news together with his attitude to the club which taking all into consideration is first class.

Luke Berry
594 Posted 08/02/2013 at 15:35:28

I really don't know what to say about all this. On the one hand he's being extremely honest about his position but that involves a not-so-veiled come and get me plea to Chelsea.

On a negative note he only says maybe when referring to being here if we get champions league, however there maybe something he knows that we don't i.e that the club have found a replacement and would cash in on him to bolster the squad (not as ludicrous as it sounds, as I believe Fellaini's style might actually hamper our chances in the CL due to his aggressiveness) and if we got the 30mil that is being touted then we could certainly do that. There is the fact that Moyes is still yet to sign, and maybe he would like to go with him if Moyes buggers off to Chelsea?

On a positive note, he obviously does love the club and Moyes and is grateful for the chance he's been given, so not much to accentuate the positive.

Shane Corcoran
595 Posted 08/02/2013 at 15:53:33

I have a suggestion of what to say.........shut your mouth Marouane.

Andy Meighan
597 Posted 08/02/2013 at 16:02:11

If you don't want to be noticed, get your chuffing haircut then!

Adam Fenlon
598 Posted 08/02/2013 at 16:07:01

He could always cut his hair if he wants to be recognised less.

Presumably these quotes were directly answering a question about Chelsea's interests. In which case it's probably not too bad....

Mark Dunford
606 Posted 08/02/2013 at 16:11:49

Curious interview. It does read like a series of answers to direct questions and the "I have never personally" is notably evasive. He is clearly here to the end of the year and then there is quite likely to be a period of uncertainty around the club - assuming they don't qualify for Champions League (very unlikely) or win the FA Cup (also very unlikely, but less so).

Moyes' own future will probably have a greater influence on this and a number of other player decisions than anything else. The manager may simply choose to depart in a dignified way at the end of the year.

Colin Glassar
610 Posted 08/02/2013 at 16:25:14

I love the big Fella and was a fan from day one but, tbh, I'm get a bit tired of him going on about staying/leaving whenever he is away with the Belgian squad. If he wants to leave then just tell us and we can start a bidding war for him (he would cost at least £30m IMO) if not he should just keep his trap shut and get on with.

And wtf does he mean that he hasn't spoken to Chelsea or sat down with them yet? Doesn't he realise that would be illegal? Ffs don't these people have agents who advise them on what to say?

Douglas Turner
615 Posted 08/02/2013 at 16:45:09

Honestly can you blame the guy? After Ballsup Bill and the board showing their true colours in the January window, I can see why Felli would want to keep his options open! Had we got Vadis or someone of his calibre, we might have been hearing more of a positive noise from Felli!

Liverpool will leapfrog us in no time at all and we've only got ourselves to blame for not striking while the iron 'was' hot! Moyes asked for the telly money upfront and gave Billy Ballsup a list of names. I'm pig sick of these charlatans and their BS explanations, year-in, year-out. Yes I went there... Deal with it Board Lovers!

Paul Ellam
625 Posted 08/02/2013 at 17:19:40

Looks like he's off in the summer then cos I don't see us getting 4th! Maybe it will be a blessing in disguise? Get £25-30 million for him, replace him with a Fer or Capoue type player at around £10 million, get in a Negredo type player at £10-15 million and a centre back for around £5 million.

Sounds easy but we have showed before, when Rooney left, that if we re-invest properly and wisely we can come out of the situation better off.

Paul Ellam
626 Posted 08/02/2013 at 17:27:49

PS - would prefer if we sold him to a team abroad!

Si Cooper
641 Posted 08/02/2013 at 18:38:47

Options kept open, but some nice things said.

Trevor Lynes
662 Posted 08/02/2013 at 20:28:24

I cannot see any veiled meanings in anything he has said. The questions he has answered are the ones he is supposed to!!

EFC will sell him if they want to and that is a situation he cannot do anything about. He is a foreign player who is working for us at the moment... period! He seems happy and relaxed with us and says as much in the interview. If he performs well for the rest of the season then he has done his job!

Negredo is not a player worth waiting for in my opinion. Now the loan window is open, why don't we go for OFOE??

Phil Sammon
666 Posted 08/02/2013 at 20:41:38

We can't loan him now.

Dennis Shaw
668 Posted 08/02/2013 at 20:49:38

Clause that we get into the Champions League, maybe? We all know it's a done deal to Chelsea and everything he has said there confirms this. All this deal has been delayed for is Chelsea's next permanent manager to arrive a done deal by July.

Jason Heng
717 Posted 09/02/2013 at 07:58:23

No one is even sure if Moyes will be manager next season, so how do you expect the players to commit their long term future?

Steven Telford
729 Posted 09/02/2013 at 09:53:05

"Maybe yes" is a pretty shitty answer in my book.
At least he is "maybe honest"
Then again, "maybe just fuck off"
Maybe stuff gets lost in translation, maybe not.

If we did qualify for the CL, maybe we should let him stay.

Marc Sansum
735 Posted 09/02/2013 at 10:48:29

Latest comments from Fellaini....

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11671/8482929/Belgian-international-Marouane-Fellaini-tells-Chelsea-to-make-an-offer

James Stewart
798 Posted 09/02/2013 at 15:56:10

@717

Spot on.

Also Fellaini is too good for Chelsea. They are in a mess with no clear long term plan or structure. The top sides are the Manchester clubs and Spurs. Anywhere else would be a step sideways.

Roman Sidey
802 Posted 09/02/2013 at 16:00:24

Remember too that this would have been in French or, by the look of the url, Dutch, so a lot get's lost in translation and tone is a big factor too. More of the same, really. Part of me wishes I was 40 years older and had have lived through a time when every word that came out of a player's or manager's mouth wasn't managed and calculated.

Sam Hoare
803 Posted 09/02/2013 at 16:03:24

He'll be off this summer. The question will be who to and for how much? Hopefully abroad and for £30m or more. Then Moyes replacement will have some money to rebuild wth.

Paul Ferry
811 Posted 09/02/2013 at 16:28:14

We will not qualify for the CL; he will leave this summer to a team that does end up in the top-4 this season.

Quite frankly, I won't shed any tears when he does go. He can be a tit off the pitch at times and hardly Mr Consistent on the pitch.

I'm most concerned about (1) how much we get (2) what we do with it. I have a hunch that (2) will be our #1 Summer issue and if not handled well — sponds disappear, incoming only gets a share of the sponds, incoming are not what we had in mind — there will be some real discontent.

I would sell silly haircut any day of the week — past, present, future — if the sponds got us 3/4 of the Mirallas sort of inspired buy and we used some of it to bring in the Barcodes chief scouts.

Pete Cumberlidge
820 Posted 09/02/2013 at 17:02:44

Whilst I would prefer that he doesn't come out so much stuff to the press, I think all his comments are reasonably fair. He's been with us for 5 years and is a player who should be playing in the CL. We wont qualify this season and he will leave in the Summer. Hopefully abroad so we don't have to suffer seeing him playing week in week out, and hopefully we will get a good uplift on the £15m paid for him. Then we'll all be happy..........well sort of!

Craig Mills
834 Posted 09/02/2013 at 17:32:49

The longer this saga gets drawn out, I think it's inevitable that he will make his move away from Goodison in the summer. I also find it kind of disrespectful that he seems to want to encourage a bid from a rival team. I cannot imagine his comments will please Moyes – again!

Mark Melton
913 Posted 10/02/2013 at 10:34:27

This is how the press works. Fellaini is contractually required by a sponsor to give a press interview to promote something. 10 seconds are spent by the interviewer in dealing with that subject. In return, for the remainder of the interview, they get to ask him all sorts of probing and difficult questions about his future, which he tries to deflect as skillfully as he can. Anyone who thinks he seeks out these interviews to big himeslf up is a bit naive.

Michael Kenrick
953 Posted 10/02/2013 at 14:43:08

Seems this 'come and get me' kerfufle is yet another reprise of Lost in Translation, according to this shocking expose by Sport Witness. And they name The Sun as the guilty party.

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