Jose, Moyes or Wenger: Who can provide the right '£26 million’ for Fellaini?

Eden Hazard, Mousa Dembele, Kevin De Bruyne and Stefan Defour; the common aspect that one can connect with these players is their grace and speed of quick passing and silly skills. And adding to that Belgian coup perfectly in terms of physicality is the Premier League duo of Fellaini and Benteke. Both of these two have been crucial to their respective clubs in terms of the towering presence they provide in both the boxes. Benteke had created confusion right at the start of the season, by declaring is love for Arsenal just after signing for Aston Villa. This summer sees him on the brink of a transfer either to the Gunners or to the rising Borrusia Dortmund.

However, It is the other tall Belgian that the League is more concerned about right now. Marouane Fellaini had made a terrific start to the 2012-13 season, as he humbled the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea early in the year. Some more performances in the same ball-park meant that he quickly declared himself ready to make the ‘move to the bigger ship’ in the winter. It can be put down to David Moyes and Ben Kenwright’s diplomacy which kept the influential midfielder in the club to help win a Europa League position. But on the occasion of Roberto Martinez joining Everton, the chairman was quick to settle matters by stating:

“He (Martinez) talked about a couple of new signings and he talked about the squad and asked ‘Do they need to go?’”. “I said ‘No, they absolutely do not have to go’ (although) there is one (Fellaini) that has a get-out, which everyone knows.”

Fellaini’s £26million buy-out clause has been out in the open since January, and if papers are to be believed there are 3-4 European clubs lining up a move for the Belgian. The obvious choices would be the ones where he wrecked terror earlier, Chelsea and Man United. In a somewhat sensational report, Arsenal were believed to enter the race with a £26million bid. Here we analyze which of these clubs have a realistic chance in the race, and where does the Belgian actually fit in.

Chelsea:

Even before Rafa Benitez had been appointed interim manager, Chelsea were reported to be leading the race for the Belgian. And lets accept it, if this race is to be decided on the size of the bid or the wage bills; the Blues have won it long since. But, now that the not-so-sensational crowning of Jose has occurred, the obvious signings might not look so apparent to ‘the Special one’.

Mourinho’s previous tenure at the Bridge had seen him emphasis on the signing of players who bring in the physicality aspect. Defend ruggedly and then counter, was his prophesied mantra, and this saw the likes of Drogba, Essien and Makelele come to the fore.

In terms of physical presence, Fellaini can humble each of the above mentioned on his day. The actual question now is that which the Belgian’s most suited position is. Originally brought into the club as a defensive midfielder, Moyes has gone on to advance Fellaini as a second striker this season. He was played behind Anichibe or Jelavic, and he turned out to be instrumental in Everton most successful link-up: the Baines-Pienaar move.

Fellaini had the simple role to pull away the midfielder covering him towards the left, and hereby provide Pienaar the space to cut-in with Baines on the overlap. His second role came into play when long balls were played to him as the target man. In these cases he preferred to flick on the balls either to Pienaar/Miralas on the wings or Osman arriving from midfield, rather than the usual flicks to the striker ahead. This usually found either Osman or Piennar free who then sought to find the striker making a run in the channels.

Fellaini’s role upfront seems quite defined, but when he plays a little deeper, that is when the real class is visible. As was seen in the Everton-Arsenal game in April, Moyes placed Fellaini at the centre of midfield with the plan to beat out the likes of Cazorla and Rosicky. Fellaini was successful in this role and he furthered his performance by displaying some smooth pass distribution to the wingers from the centre; surely this turned out to be an unexpected asset in a towering giant.

Now coming back to Mourinho’s gameplan; it is expected that Jose sticks with a midfield trio, with a CDM, a runner and Frank Lampard. The spot for the runner is at the moment clearly up for Ramires to grab, as Mourinho has always kept a box-to box player in his midfield, in the mould of say Sami Khedira. Ramires was quite often criticized last season for defensive errors when played deep next to Mikel and hence will be allowed to venture further ahead.

Frank Lampard’s tagline of ‘arriving late in the box’ can be put down to the early Jose days. But with the Englishman’s advance in age, he has been used in much deeper midfield roles. The other position has been taken up by Mikel and at times by the dynamic David Luiz. Out of these 2, David Luiz would be preferred to Fellaini on any day due to the creativity and energy the Brazilian brings into midfield. In case of Mikel, after being heavily criticized by few in his early days, the Nigerian’s role this season has finally won him some acclaim. Particularly his arrival in place of Lampard at half time in the Liverpool game, changed the entire dynamics of the midfield battle. Fellaini might be a more motoring force than Mikel in midfield, but definitely the adventurous streak in the Belgian would not fit the combination with Luiz/Lampard and Ramires.

Manchester United:

The Red Devils become the favorite in this race with David Moyes’ arrival at Old Trafford. The Scotsman had brought Fellaini to Goodison for £18 million in 2008, and it is safe to say that there has been no love lost in that relation. Moyes’ attempts to keep him at the club till the end of the season might be seen as a shrewd move to take him to Manchester United along.

There have been strong rumours coming from Manchester that Moyes is looking for a 2nd midfielder to partner Carrick in the centre. Carrick has been established as the main stay in this team for his distribution to the wings and forwards, and with Scholes’ retirement and Cleverley and Anderson’s inability to come to the fore, there is a slot for another big name to enter. This has already seen the likes of Fabregas and Thiago being linked to Manchester United, and looking at the moulds of these 2 it becomes clear that Moyes would be looking for a runner to link the defense with the attack and thus leaving Carrick with more defensive responsibility.

This role could be quite suitable for Fellaini as he was seen in this role for large parts of last season. But one blocking point would be that now the Belgian will not have the freedom to move into the second striker role due to the presence of established strikers in the team. Wayne Rooney again becomes the talking point now, as Moyes’ preference between 2 of his former pupils will be crucial here.

Arsenal:

Arsene Wenger is the most recent manager to be reported to have been struck by the Fellaini bug, but he looks like the least likely person to win the race. Arsenal yesterday released Arshavin from the club; and the Russian who had claimed the club’s highest transfer fee back in 2009, has only further proved Wenger’s point of view of not spending heavily on an in-form player. So in that aspect, Arsenal have never been in the race to sign Fellaini.

Just considering for a moment that Wenger does in fact go through with the bid (though fully expect the Frenchman to put an initial bid of 6 million). The Belgian has earlier claimed to prefer playing as a central midfielder, but with the likes of Ramsey, Arteta and Wilshere already waiting in the ranks at the Emirates, Fellaini does not look as the first choice in that department.

But when you consider the Belgian as the striker behind Giroud, it ticks all the boxes that Rosicky has not been able to. Wenger plays Tomas Rosicky as an advanced midfielder rather than an attacker, and this emphasizes the Arsenal way of playing out of the half rather than launching balls upfront. But with Fellaini playing ahead, Wenger does have a Plan B for the games like Stoke City and Chelsea. With Fellaini as the target man, Giroud becomes more of a striker running the channels and this might be able to utilize the Frenchman’s underrated left foot shoots. It will also invite Cazorla to link up from the left, hereby again promoting Wenger’s ploy of playing a midfielder on the wings.

And finally the 12-13 season had seen Arteta struggle initially against the likes of Pienaar, Ruiz and Hoolahan. This could be improved by the support of Fellaini in midfield. And even though the world considers Wenger to be a Scrooge, Ivan Gazdis here emphasizes why players would want to play under such an enigmatic manager:

“I think players that are concerned about uncertainty probably think about Arsenal as the most certain place they could be in the world of football. This is a club that has had remarkable consistency in terms of its manager, its football philosophy, its direction and the consistent support from the board.”

The Fellaini saga is certain to push into the early weeks of August, with finally a bidding war looking certain to happen after all these years. Chelsea will have the advantage in terms of their huge bids coming in and also in the European adventures they promise to provide, but the ball seems certainly to be in David Moyes’ court with Fellaini looking for the slightest nod. Arsenal at the moment are not in the same ball park, and doesn’t matter how many times the papers claim that the club has a £120million kitty, the fact remains that Arsene Wenger has had that sort of funds for quite some time now; and still the barren run goes on.

By the way, Fellaini might also be the perfect plan B that Barcelona are desperately searching for. Anyway that would be a different story all together.