Jose Mourinho has revealed how a phone call to Marouane Fellaini transformed the midfielder's flagging Manchester United career.

Fellaini endured a difficult three seasons at United following his £27million switch from Everton in the summer of 2013.

Brought to United by David Moyes, his former boss at Everton, Fellaini came to epitomise the Scot's ill-fated 10-month reign at Old Trafford.

Fellaini became a scapegoat for the doomed Moyes era and faced an uncertain future when Louis van Gaal was sacked to make way for Mourinho.

Fellaini was signed by David Moyes (
Image:
Getty)

But the Special One said he always had faith in him and revealed how he called Fellaini after he was appointed as United boss to reassure him he was staying.

Fellaini has played a subtle but crucial role in United's opening two Premier League wins of the season, anchoring the midfield with a calm authority.

"Maybe a simple phone call can make a difference," said Mourinho.

"[He was] a player that was feeling not loved. A player that when the season and the market opened, everybody was saying he was leaving and was not a player for me.

Mourinho during his team's 2-0 win over Southampton (
Image:
Reuters)

"But maybe a simple phone call the day after my presentation as Manchester United manager changed a lot because I told him 'forget everything you read, for me you don’t leave, for sure'.

"Then I think the more organised the team play, the easier for the players it is to feel confident. He's playing well, with [Michael] Carrick, with [Ander] Herrera, with Paul [Pogba].

"I think he's full of confidence, but I have so many good players. I was sad for all the players in their nice Paul Smith suits - Carrick, Memphis, Phil Jones - that I don’t select that are here.

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Fellaini in action against Southampton on Friday (
Image:
Michael Regan)

"I need September to come, because the relations can be good, the players can be great professionals, but a player is a player and when he doesn’t play one game, two, three, the frustration comes and it's difficult to train well.

"And when they don’t train well, I have a reason not to select them and then they go downhill. So I need September - [Timothy] Fosu-Mensah, [Marcos] Rojo, Carrick, [Morgan] Schneiderlin, Memphis, [Marcus] Rashford, we have a big top-quality squad."