Marouane Fellaini's departure ends one Manchester United chapter and ushers in another

It is ultimately fitting that Fellaini – the symbol of United post-2013 – should depart just as the club appears to be emerging out of its post-Ferguson malaise

So farewell then, Marouane Fellaini. The first major signing of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era departs as its enduring emblem; a 6ft4in, sharp-elbowed and bushy-haired totem that few Manchester United supporters knelt down before to worship.

Fellaini has completed his move to Chinese Super League’s Shandong Luneng, for a fee of around £10.5m, which will bring one of the more eventful and memorable post-2013 Old Trafford careers to an end.

The Belgian received 30 yellow cards, three reds but surprisingly just one charge of violent conduct. That is despite elbowing at least five opponents, headbutting one other and twice being booed onto the pitch by his own supporters.

And yet, his departure has not led to the dancing down Sir Matt Busby Way that some might expect. In fact, five-and-a-half years on from his arrival, Fellaini had developed a small but strong cult following that appreciated his specialist abilities.

There were three stages of Fellaini’s United career. The first was dominated by a debate over whether he was ‘a Manchester United player’, though those questions revealed less about him and more about a club in transition for the first time in 26 years.

The second stage was characterised by those random acts of violence from a player searching for purpose. Pablo Zabaleta, Ron Vlaar, Paul McShane, Roberto Firmino, Emre Can, Dejan Lovren and Robert Huth all felt Fellaini’s force – via elbow, knee or stamp – at some point during this period.

The third stage came with the arrival of Jose Mourinho, who saw a player that had needed to fight for everything to prove himself at the club, one that met all the criticism with an air of uncaring insouciance, and Mourinho thought he saw a part of himself.

Even then, he practically left Fellaini in a glass box reading ‘break in case of emergency’. The Belgian was his Plan B all the way through to Z but this approach failed to turn a match on its head more times than it succeeded.

Still, when it did work, it was oddly thrilling. Fellaini would ultimately endear himself to many United supporters – not only his single-mindedness and strength of character but also by scoring a number of important goals.

He gave United the lead in a Manchester derby they would win in April 2015, around the time that Louis van Gaal considered him “undroppable”. There was a decisive header against Celta Vigo which sent Mourinho’s United to the Europa League final too and a winner against Arsenal last season.

Fellaini also leaves United before next month’s Champions League round of 16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain, a tie he effectively set up with his late goal against Young Boys in November, which he celebrated by embracing Mourinho.

Even in those big moments though, you knew that if Fellaini was doing something right, United had done something wrong. He managed just 31 minutes under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and, though hampered by a calf injury of late, he was unlikely to manage many more for the remainder of the season.

It is ultimately fitting that Fellaini – the symbol of United post-2013 – should depart just as the club appears to be emerging out of its post-Ferguson malaise.

It is also significant that he flew to China on the same day Anthony Martial signed a new five-year contract. Fellaini was handed a two-year deal just eight months ago, at around the same time as Mourinho was pushing Martial towards the exit.

As a hard-working, persistent and sometimes brutally effective player, Fellaini will be remembered more fondly than some think. It is hard, though, not to see his departure as part of the end of one chapter in United’s history and the beginning of another.