Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has revealed his belief that Marouane Fellaini is nowhere near being a Manchester United standard player.
The Belgian international was handed a three-match ban after his recent altercation with Leicester City defender Robert Huth, and it certainly isn’t the first time that he’s been in hot water since arriving in England in 2008.
Carragher has taken exception with how both men were handed the same suspension despite the difference in seriousness between their actions, with Huth pulling Fellaini’s hair before the latter responded with an elbow.
As well as recounting his experiences with the former Everton man, Carragher has questioned his ability to continue playing for a club like United, and doesn’t believe that he has ever been good enough to turn out at Old Trafford.
“The more I look at the punishments that Marouane Fellaini and Robert Huth received, the less I can understand the Football Association’s decision,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column. “Huth, a giant in Leicester’s fairytale campaign, misses his side’s big celebration for an incident you associate with a school playground.
“Yet Fellaini could end up playing in the FA Cup final. Can pulling someone’s hair cause the same damage as a flailing elbow? No. Not in a million years.
“It can’t be right that he will be available for Manchester United’s big day against Crystal Palace on May 21. My personal hope is that we would never see him playing in the Premier League again.”
Carragher goes on to label Fellaini a “menace” before rattling through the number of yellow and red cards that he has received since moving to England, which total 61 and three along with 18 matches missed through suspension.
The evidence backs the Sky Sports pundit’s claims and argument, and he isn’t the first, and certainly won’t be the last, to suggest that Fellaini isn’t good enough for United.
Whether or not that results in the club finally looking to offload him this summer remains to be seen, as evidently changes are needed in Louis van Gaal’s squad to ensure that they are competing for more than merely a top-four finish.
While the former Everton star adds a steeliness to United’s midfield, it is widely acknowledged that the club could sign someone with similar characteristics, but with less of a habit of getting into disciplinary trouble as well as harming the club’s reputation.