During his first press conference as manager of Sunderland, David Moyes has admitted that he is interested in bringing Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini and Adnan Januzaj with him to the North East.
When asked about the pair, Moyes confirmed his interest.
If any of those good players want to join me I’d be happy to have them. They’re excellent players. We’re interested but I’m sure there’s a load of other clubs that are as well. We’ve got offers in for people already. We’re interested in lots of good players. But you have to have a realistic view. There’ll be some players we can attract just now and some players we can’t. We’ll try and get the ones we can and the ones who want to come here and start on the new journey we’re on.
Fellaini enjoyed a successful at Everton and was their highest scorer in his final season there before he moved to Old Trafford with Moyes.
While there have been a few highlights for Fellaini since then, he’s largely had a difficult time at United.
Fellaini had a clause in his contract which meant that United could sign him for £23.5m. However, the transfer was delayed, either through indecision from Moyes or incompetence from Ed Woodward, meaning United had to pay at extra £4m.
Januzaj’s only consistently good season for United was when Moyes was manager, with him being one of a few players who managed to succeed when the Scot was in charge. Since then, Januzaj’s career has taken a downward spiral, with him falling out of favour with the Belgian national team after turning down their invitation to play for the U-21. His loan move to Borussia Dortmund was also a failure with Januzaj struggling to get game time and the coaches there questioning his attitude.
Ideally, United would want to shift Fellaini on a permanent transfer and send Januzaj on loan, with him in last chance saloon. Previous reports have suggested that Jose Mourinho is keen to keep Fellaini around for his height and is happy for Januzaj to leave the club permanently.
