Everton reportedly tell Manchester United they want £30 million for Marouane Fellaini

If talkSPORTS' report is to be believed, Everton are playing hardball with Manchester United over a potential transfer of Belgian international midfielder Marouane Fellaini.

Which is good.

The report claims that Everton are demanding £30million from United for The Fro and the question will now become whether or not Moyes wants to spend that kind of cash for the player he helped shape into a star with the Toffees.

From an Everton perspective, this is the kind of report we like to see.

Selling Fellaini would be a blow for sure, but if he's going to move, get top dollar for him. The Toffees have the added bonus of being in the driver's seat for this deal as they know Moyes wants Fellaini and Everton aren't in a big rush to sell. Add to that the failures by Moyes at bringing in either  Cesc Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara and you might just get a sense of desperation and a possible willingness to over spend.

Then again, Moyes is a talented spend thrift -- as we all know -- but he's also never had the spending power that United has at it's disposal backing him before. So who knows what he will do.

Whatever the outcome, this needs to get done quickly. Everton really don't need the spectre of Fellaini's possibel transfer hanging over the club for the first few weeks of the season and causing issues like Joleon Lescott's transfer did a few seasons ago.

The counter balance to this report is of course the fact that the reported £22m release clause in Fellaini's contract has expired and you have to wonder why United wouldn't have come in sooner for him with that option available.

We shall see.