To make a long story short, it seems Marouane Fellaini is determined to see himself playing for someone other than Everton, hopefully Arsenal, but the North London club isn’t willing to spend the money necessary to trigger his release clause.
Despite the declarations from the Arsenal board that 2013 will be the summer in which Arsene Wenger has all the money in the world at his disposal to bring in players that are more than just head scratchers to most, but the kind of players that are chased by the biggest clubs in Europe. So far, none of that has actually happened.
Fellaini, 25, has been hearing noises of Chelsea and Arsenal since the season began, but nothing actually happening. He turned in his best season for Everton, scoring 11 league goals, leading the team to a sixth place finish, hoping his performance will be enough to get his the move to a bigger and better club.
Not for now. Everton don’t want to sell him for anything lower than his release clause in his contract, which runs until 2016. After already losing David Moyes, the man most regard as the responsible part for the club’s relative success over the last 10 years without spending too much money (although Fellaini did cost them £15 million), they don’t want to see their best player go away if there’s something they can do about it.
According to the Daily Mirror, Arsenal are contemplating if paying £23 million for Fellaini is a good value for the money, even if he has been one of the more impressive midfielders in the Premier League, offering both an attacking ability and a strong presence in the middle, for the last few years.
You never know with Wenger – does he honestly think that Fellaini simply isn’t good enough to spend so much money on, or is it a different matter, and he’s simply doing what he always does: trying to make the unpredictable signing, that makes him look like a genius, which hasn’t turned out too well over the last few years?