Marouane Fellaini Has 3 Months to Salvage Manchester United Career

The story of Manchester United's transfer window was all about high-profile arrivals and unexpected departures.

It was about the £152 million they spent and the way in which Louis van Gaal wielded his axe. But as the Dutchman was bringing new players in and shipping old ones out, there was a group of survivors. 

A group of players who looked to be on borrowed time. But, as the clocked ticked past 11 p.m. on deadline day, those players' names never appeared on Sky Sports' yellow ticker.

Names destined never to be spoken by an overexcited Jim White in a way that makes you think he might go into cardiac arrest if Stockport County should so much as hint it might sign a reserve goalkeeper on a free.

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Marouane Fellaini survived. It looked for a time that he might not—that the Belgian midfielder might be packed off somewhere in the way you might throw some unwanted shoes bought in a moment of madness into the back of a cupboard.

But he's still there. And while he remains at Old Trafford, there's a chance, however slim, that he can win over his new manager and force his way back into the United team.

He'll have to recover from an ankle injury first. But even if he was fit for Queens Park Rangers' visit on Sunday, there would be very few fans who would pick him.

It's a measure of how far his stock has fallen just 12 months after arriving for £27.5 million from Everton.

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Fellaini's form at the end of last season, his miserable displays against Liverpool, Manchester City and Bayern Munich, have made him almost an irrelevance.

When supporters talk about how Van Gaal is going to put his new-look team together, Fellaini doesn't even get a mention. He's now got three months to change that.

In three months another transfer window will open. It will be another opportunity for Van Gaal to sign the dynamic, box-to-box midfielder the fans crave. Another chance for Fellaini to be ushered out of the door.

It's not obvious how Fellaini fits into Van Gaal's "philosophy." The Dutchman is a fan of technically gifted players. Players who think rather than just do.

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It's not that Fellaini is a bad footballer, despite what some United fans might say. He's been capped more than 50 times and played in a World Cup just this summer.

But it's not clear yet whether he's a United player. A Van Gaal player. 

The new United manager has shown himself to be ruthless in his decision-making. He spent pre-season watching Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley and Javier Hernandez. They were established first-team players. Now they're gone.

Fellaini will be too if he doesn't finally prove his worth at United. If he can't, come January, his name will be on that yellow ticker after all.