Everton’s £75.9million sale has become a “legend” and has outscored every Toffees player in 2023
Everton’s star, who cost £27.5 million, has outscored Doucoure and DCL in 2023.
This player became a “club legend” after leaving Everton in 2013.
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Everton’s recruitment over the last decade has been haphazard, to say the least, ever since David Moyes stepped down to take manager at Premier League champions Manchester United.
Under a number of different head coaches, the Toffees signed a high number of players for large transfer prices, parting with half a billion pounds in cash from 2016 to 2022 alone.
Nonetheless, the Merseyside club has made part of its money back in the last ten years by selling key players such as Romelu Lukaku, Richarlison, John Stones, and Anthony Gordon for comparatively large sums.
However, the club’s fifth-highest transfer sale since 2013 has just become a free agent and has already outscored every Everton player in 2023.
The transfer fees Marouane Fellaini accumulated
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Moyes broke Everton’s club record in 2008 when he paid £15 million for a teenage Belgian midfielder named Marouane Fellaini from Standard Liege. According to Transfermarkt, the midfielder became a fan favorite at Goodison Park, scoring 33 goals and registering 26 assists in five years but also picking up 45 yellow cards in 177 appearances across all competitions.
Following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, Moyes was named as Manchester United’s new manager, bringing Fellaini with him in his first transfer window. In fact, Fellaini was the first major signing of the post-Sir Alex era at Old Trafford, having joined for an estimated £27.5 million.
Fellaini was one of the most expensive signings in Manchester United history when he joined the club a little more than ten years ago and became a figure of ridicule at times, with former captain Roy Keane even claiming that the Belgium international became a “scapegoat” at the Theatre of Dreams for the team’s failures on the field.
Fellaini was eventually released by United after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over at the end of 2018, despite just playing three minutes in the league under the Norwegian coach. Shandong Luneng Taishan in the Chinese Super League paid £10.5 million for the Belgian.
The 6 foot 4 midfielder may not have had fan support during his time with the Red Devils, but he did during his five-year tenure in China. So much so that transfer analyst Fabrizio Romano referred to Fellaini as a “legend of the club” when revealing that the 35-year-old had become a free agent after his contract ended on Saturday morning.
Fellaini’s stats in 2023
If Fellaini had stayed in Merseyside, there are few players in their prime who would have complemented Sean Dyche’s direct tactical style better than him.
Fellaini, who was converted to a center-forward in the CSL, scored 12 goals in 29 games, including 11 in the league this season. The only Everton player who comes close to these stats in 2023 is midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure, who scored eight goals in the previous calendar year, three of which came this season.
Football news – former Man Utd midfielder Marouane Fellaini tests positive for COVID-19 in China – Eurosport
Fellaini’s head provided eight of his 11 league goals in 2023, a tool he used brilliantly in English football to latch onto the end of crosses inside the penalty box. Furthermore, according to FotMob, the massive Belgian averaged a goal per 181 minutes in the CSL, all of which came inside the box, outperforming his previous season tally of striking once every 232 minutes.
Doucoure, on the other hand, has scored one goal every 316 minutes this season in the Premier League, with all three coming within the penalty area, albeit the Frenchman is yet to score a header under Dyche in the 2023/24 season. Only Dominic Calvert-Lewin has a higher goals-per-minute ratio than Fellaini and Doucoure, averaging one per 167 minutes this season despite only scoring three times in the Premier League.
Fellaini had a similar role to Doucoure at Everton, albeit under different management, but the former is still considerably more of a goal danger than any other player in a squad that has scored only 11 goals in 11 league games.
It would be intriguing to see whether Fellaini decides to hang up his boots for good or continue playing, but there is still a competent player available for a club to get on the cheap.
