Deal for Pienaar's return not the best

, 19 August, 8comments  |  Jump to most recent
David Moyes admits that he had little choice but to bring Steven Pienaar back to Everton at any cost.

The parsimonious Scot was forced to complete a less-than-optimal financial deal that saw Everton pay Spurs £1.5m more than they charged 18 months ago, for a player who is a year older.

“It wasn't the best deal we've ever done but we knew when the season finished we had to bring Steven back to Everton — really at any cost.

"We'd have to do it. It wasn't that we missed him badly, it was when we got him back we realised what we were missing. It made such a difference to the team and the atmosphere.”

Quotes or other material sourced from Daily Star



Reader Comments (8)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer


Tony McNulty
1 Posted 19/08/2012 at 18:26:56
Some deals you win, some you lose. And Moysie for the most part has done some pretty good deals down the years. In any case, SP wanted to go and at the time there wasn't much we could do about it.

The Gosling 'deal' still rankles though. Whoever was involved in that was asleep at the wheel.

Wayne Smyth
2 Posted 19/08/2012 at 19:38:57
Tony, at the time I don't remember pienaar asking to leave. I recall he asked for parity with arteta, which was more than moyes was willing to pay.

That was a bad decision in a number of ways, not least being that pienaar was far more important to us than arteta, and also its cost us in the long run.

Martin Graves
3 Posted 19/08/2012 at 19:48:59
Id rather look at it like this - at the end of his new 4 year contract, we'll have paid a grand total of £6.7million for him and received £3million in fees, so a net outlay of £3.7million for 8 years service of a player whom I consider one of the best on the PL - Spurs received a £1.5million profit on a player they had for little time, but as he never requested a transfer and they paid him a hefty wage and signing on fee (rumored £4million over contract) who came out worse???!!
Jim Knightley
4 Posted 19/08/2012 at 20:23:20
Agreed Martin.

It was crucial to bring him back, and unlike other managers who have put personal pride before going back for a player, we've made the right decision.

Eddie McBride
5 Posted 19/08/2012 at 20:50:42
I still don't see where we lost money given what we saved in wages. But I do agree that it was poor buisness on our behalf. Then again, I don't think anyone is surprised at that, given the incompetents we have running the club.
Tony McNulty
6 Posted 19/08/2012 at 21:31:19
Wayne,

Yes you are correct of course, money certainly seemed to be one of the issues at the time. But it was also part of a smokescreen: he wanted CL football as well, and thought he could hold down a place in Tottingham's starting eleven. In the event he was often lucky to get his arse onto the bench. He didn't cut it with them, and has had the sense to run back to the place where his skills seem to fit the system.

When a player decides he is off in the modern era then it is hard to hold onto them. We've seen that with Rooney; Whisky Nose saw it with Ronaldo; the Professor has just seen it with Van Persie.

What I don't know is whether SP is now on the same money that we refused to give him just before he left. Does anyone who tracks these sort of things better than me have the answer?

Keith Glazzard
7 Posted 20/08/2012 at 01:05:54
If there's an honest man in football its our manager.

'when the season finished we had to bring Steven back to Everton — really at any cost.'

No spin, hold my hands up, open truth.

I don't always agree with Davey's selections and tactics, but I can take honesty til the cows come home.

Anto Byrne
8 Posted 20/08/2012 at 10:36:13
Lucas Neill in on a free and sold for a couple of mil, then we had Beckford in for zilch and sold for £3-4 mil I understand... so swings and roundabouts. Let's not mention the Yak deal but overall we do quite well. We even got money for Kevin Kilbane. In this case it's just peanuts. ROFL!

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


About these ads