Marouane Fellaini reveals how upset he was when David Moyes was sacked

Tears of joy or tears of sadness

Kevin McGillicuddy

Marouane Fellaini reveals how upset he was when David Moyes was sacked

He must have been the only one.

It’s exactly two years today that Alex Ferguson announced he was standing down as Manchester United manager and just over a year since David Moyes was sacked as his replacement.

The Moyes era has been pretty much wiped from most Manchester United fans memories at this stage, but there is one man who still pines for the former Everton boss.

Marouane Fellaini was one of Moyes’ early signings at Old Trafford, but failed to live up to the impressive form shown at Goodison Park when he signed for the then Premier League champions.

The Belgian has revealed that the two men were close since their time together on Merseyside, and that when the Scot was sacked in April of 2014 the giant midfielder shed a little tear. Or two.

‘When he left I was sad. We had heard things on the radio and TV. It was after a defeat to Everton. I did not know if it was true or not. Then I arrived the next day at the canteen, and I saw him in his suit, rather than his tracksuit. I told myself: This is the end.”It was weird. After I had eaten, he summoned me to his office and he told me the news. This is football. There were tears. This is normal. I am a human being. I worked with him for six years. He was not a second father, but almost. He helped me a lot.’

The midfielder has since flourished under Louis Van Gaal at the club, and has been one of the club’s best players this season after a mixed start under the Dutchman. The Belgian admits that he was affected by the negative criticism and expected to leave the club at the end of his first campaign,

‘During my first season at Manchester, the team was not performing and I was the scapegoat. Everything was Fellaini’s fault. If you pay attention to all this [criticism], you sink. It destroyed me on every side.”

‘I knew it was going to be difficult when he [Van Gaal] arrived because I was the scapegoat last season. So I told myself I had nothing to lose.“I had one chat with him at the start of the season on my return from the World Cup. He told me there were a lot of players in my position and it was up to me to prove myself.

‘After a few training sessions, I felt things were going well. He tested me. He put me up against players who could make things difficult for me, little, lively ones. Either one-on-one or in groups of four. He observed me in these games and watched the videos, too.’

H/T The Guardian