Manchester United's double bid of £28 million for Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini and left-back Leighton Baines was "a waste of time", according to
Toffee's boss Roberto Martinez. Everton dismissed United's double bid to reunited new manager David Moyes with his two former charges "out of hand" and later labelled it as "derisory" and "insulting". And now Martinez, who took over from Moyes at Goodison Park after leaving Wigan, wants to put an end to any further speculation linking his two prized assets to Old Trafford this summer. The Spaniard told evertontv:
"It's been well documented what happened with the transfer speculation, that's been dealt with and it was all a little bit of a waste of time - time I don't want the players to waste. "I think the start of the season was important for us at Norwich and I won't come out now and carry on talking about the speculation. "The players have had the demands of international football and then they started the league with a lot of travelling, so obviously you can imagine it's been important these past few days that we can get them recovered, regenerate them in the right manner and get them ready for the next game. "That, at the moment, is our only focus."
Belgian midfielder Fellaini and England left-back Baines have been linked with a move away from Merseyside for much of the summer, with United offering £12 million for the latter back in June. Their interest in Fellaini, while rumoured for much of the close-season, was only made formal yesterday however and it remains to be seen if the champions return with an improved bid for one or both of the pair. Martinez has previously revealed that the buy-out clause in Fellaini's contract, believed to have been £23.5 million, expired back in July and it is now believed the midfielder's market value has increased. Martinez has promised to keep supporters abreast on the issues of comings and goings at the club over the next two weeks. He continued:
"I think the situation is very clear. I think as a football club we will always keep our fans informed. "When there is something to tell our fans we will do that - they'll be the first ones to know if there are any players coming in or any players going out."