Marouane Fellaini is confident he will prove his worth at Manchester United.
The Belgian international has been a big hit in the Premier League since joining Everton, who paid a club record £15million to take him from Standard Liege in 2008. He has often been a nuisance to the United defence, never more so than on the opening day of last season when he starred and scored in the Toffees 1-0 win at Goodison Park.
Fellaini will now be lining up in the red of the Old Trafford club, after David Moyes signed him from his former club in a £27.5million deadline day deal. Not every United fan appears to be taken with the 25-year-old midfielder, but the player is confident he can win them over and establish himself as a key player for the champions.
“I am thrilled to sign for Manchester United,” he is quoted on the club website. “I have known the manager for many years now and I have a lot of respect for his way of working. When I was given the opportunity to work with him again, I jumped at the chance.
“I had a fantastic time at Everton and I’d like to thank all the fans and staff. But being a Manchester United player is something that every player dreams of and I believe that I can make a real contribution to the team’s efforts to win trophies in the future.”
United could have signed Fellaini for a reduced fee of £23.5million in July, when such a price was built into his contract as a buyout clause. That Moyes neglected to do so perhaps indicates that the former Standard man was not his first choice, with Barcelona’s former Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas the subject of two failed offers last month.
But as it is, Fellaini now becomes the fourth most expensive signing in United’s history, behind the £31million paid for Tottenham Hotspur’s Dimitar Berbatov, the £30million Leeds United received for Rio Ferdinand, and former Argentina international midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who joined from Lazio in a £29.1million transfer.
