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31st Jul 2016

No, Antonio Valencia didn’t confirm Marouane Fellaini’s transfer on Instagram

Lost in translation.

Kevin Beirne

Stay strong everyone, there’s not long until the Premier League is back for real.

Silly season is almost over, and we’ve even got some pre-season goals to keep us interested until the action starts for real on August 13 (because we all know that the Charity Shield/Community Shield/whatever it’s now called is just a glorified pre-season game).

But since it’s still summer, that means we’re all still left analysing every social media uttering of any player in the world in search of some new information.

Some Manchester United fans thought they had stumbled upon a massive revelation on the Instagram account of their Ecuadorian winger-cum-fullback Antonio Valencia, who seemed to be implying either he or Marouane Fellaini was on their way out of Old Trafford.

That certainly does make it seem like one of the two United players are not in Jose Mourinho’s future plans alright.

But as is often the case in these situations, it appears to have been lost in translation a bit.

Valencia’s actual post is in Spanish, and reads:

‘Seguir adelante no es la única opción… pero es la mejor decisión.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIhYvPugNks/

In context, this should likely be read as “moving forward” as opposed to “moving on” – as a reference to United bouncing back from their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Borussia Dortmund to hand down a 5-2 beating to Galatasaray.

This is also helped by the posts Valencia shared either side of the one with Fellaini.

First, he shared a video of him assisting Zlatan Ibrahmovic’s first United goal with a caption that roughly translates as:

‘Life every day offers a new opportunity to be happy, is called: TODAY’

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIhYGMlgPBO/

Then he followed that up with the picture with Fellaini before sharing a team photo which read:

‘If you failed yesterday, no matter, today you have the opportunity to start again.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIhZDeoAg2a/

Sorry, United fans, but it looks like Fellaini is staying put for now.

But that didn’t stop supporters from celebrating his departure.

https://twitter.com/Scholesy_Giggsy/status/759723309843959808

https://twitter.com/qolabottles/status/759720691029581824

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