Baines invited to extend Goodison career for another season

Once a season is over, at whatever date, a player should be able to look to his next year's appointment. The same applies to clubs.

Currently, a player under contract between the last game of the season (usually mid May) has 6 or 7 weeks when they aren't playing for the club but could get injured and be a club liability.

On a lighter note, I watched the Netflix miniseries, The English Game, and the lead character looks like he could be his brother (or maybe Baines was moonlighting).

Stay healthy all!

Leighton Baines makes Everton better just by his presence in the club. And he makes the side better by his presence on the pitch. Let's hope this renewal sees out his career at Goodison and he never wears the uniform of another club.

He'd know if the actor playing the lead role was indeed Bainsey – with a convincing Scottish accent.

Sam. please confirm?

As Paul above has said, sheer class.

When he covered for Lucas, he did a fantastic job. Baines did such a good job, we did not miss Digne as much as we thought we would. A true professional.

Not looking forward to the end-of-season blitz, I fear the worse for Everton's largely hit and miss squad, after another, this time enforced, extended break, which they never come back from with any evidence of work.

He's finished and has barely ever been good enough. Can you imagine him playing for Liverpool? You'd attack him, destroy him and love that he played for them.

I know I'll get pelters, because he likes cool music and he's a cool dude, but he's stole a living at the level we pay him, for a decade and now. We're giving him another few million because the Italian manager that had never heard of us before, or him, has been taken in! Would he sign him for any of his previous clubs? Even in his prime? Not a sliver of a chance.

When are we going to get ruthless and professional? Nothing ever changes, we're a joke Liverpool would never do this and all their fans are loving this. It's sickening.

Sorry to all the apologists, because I know you love the club and mean well but we're a joke when it comes to contracts and signings. Btw, I like him, he's done a decent job for us and seems a good bloke; he's just not a winning footballer.

Eat it, Mike Price. Single most idiotic post I've ever seen here.

I doubt there are many fitter players at our club. Baines has looked after his body and certainly last season when he covered for Digne, Digne was not missed.

Not out of sentiment or anything else, Baines certainly deserves another season, he has earned it and not let the team down. What you get with Baines is nothing but 100% effort and work rate, he still has a season or so left yet.

Only a bad injury stops us talking the same about Coleman who has lost that bit of pace, likewise with Jagielka, three brilliant servants of our football club.

Mike Price, if you think Baines has "barely ever been good enough". I'm afraid you know fuck all about football, lad.

"Barely ever been good enough"?

Between 2011 and 2014, he was possibly the best left back in Europe. He's arguably been our only world class player of the last 30 years.

A brilliant footballer and utterly deserving of another season. Even at 35 he's one of the better back-up full-back options in the league. We're lucky to have him.

I would agree of players in the past Never Leighton Baines, that guy is why we love EFC.

Fact is, we need to replace so many players, so signing a back-up left-back really would be a bit of a pain, and a drain on what will be limited resources in a limited market. Baines has been quality, and when needed we can rely on him.

Now, he is a tad too slow which means he liable to be caught out of position more often than we would want. This has happened when he came into the team in most recent games.

But all-in-all, he'll give us solid back up.

Still think it's madness that we sold Antonee Robinson for £1 million mind.

Still can't view the team owner as anything other than Dot Cotton, a member of the OCG working for AC12.

Baines was a really good right back and can still put in a performance. I am not in favour of Everton's one-year extension contracts, but I do believe Baines always tries to give of his best, and can put in a solid Premier League standard performance.

I would say he is professional in his training and I have never doubted his attitude. Glad he is available, but would have preferred the situation was different.

I thought it was well known he was a boyhood RS?

I think that yours is the first realistic quote regarding the current transfer window on ToffeeWeb unless Moshiri and his mate are going to come up with a shed load of money in some roundabout way.

They are being watched, with the outcome of the enquiry into his mate's forward sponsorship money, and the current crisis does not help.

The Premier League were grossly negligent in negotiating the Media contract in not having a get-out clause or related insurance to cover a loss. This end-of-season blitz should have been a standalone end-of-season competition, not this sham that only suits our neighbours. Many of the clubs and their fans are an afterthought, are expected to play along, it is this sham which may be detrimental to the future recovery and standing of the clubs after the crisis.

By trying to maintain this season, the Premier League is inadvertently writing off next season.

He never had any pace or aggression and his size meant teams targeted him in dead ball situations. He couldn't get close to players so crosses were whipped in all too frequently.

A decent player with a nice left foot who linked well with Pienaar for a few seasons. A quiet, nice man and a decent player who never won a thing, unfortunately.

That season when he had the most assists in Europe was testament to the fact that he was more than a 'decent player'.

I wouldn't want to rely on him too much next season if Digne got a bad injury but you know Baines will keep himself fit and ready and that kind of professionalism is so useful, both on and off the pitch.

Doesn't seem there is a particular left-back pulling up trees in the academy so I suspect we will need to buy some cover there next summer (or January if Digne gets injured).

It’s been a long time since I read such drivel.

There’s no sentiment about it. Baines has been a quality player. If you don’t recognise that then you are quite simply wrong. The fact that he hasn’t won anything with us is not a stick to beat him with. If we had more players of his calibre over the last decade then we’d have come a lot closer to trophies.

I think he has definitely still got something to offer though, especially considering Ancellotti (he got the sack off Chelsea, after losing to Everton) likes his teams to play in a 4-4-2, which definitely suits Baines, and helps him play to his strengths.

To a certain extent, what you say is right: we have accepted – hook, line and sinker – a standard of achievement for years that was not going to win anything. And to a certain extent we also have accepted a certain standard of individual performance to be our guide in accepting what is the standard of our good players.

Some of the players have been of a high standard but, when they remain at Everton and are content to do so, they can get tarred by the same bush as the lowest performing player.

Everton have no choice but to offer Baines an extended contract. He is worth it under the circumstances, but it shows also what Baines could have achieved with his abilities.

If the Management and the ethos of the Club had been better and up to higher achievements, rather than getting themselves over time, into the situation of having to offer a 35-year-old an extended contract and hope he agrees to sign it.

One-year extended contracts for aged player say a lot about a club's level of achievement. In the past at Everton, they have been parental and cheap. In Baines's case, it is necessary.

Surely someone on the coaching team needs to be a leader and vocal. Leighton Baines has never been either. He was however for about 4 years the best left-back around, after Ashley Cole.

As back-up, hopefully on a lower wage to do a job. I don't think anyone else is gonna offer him a contract, and I doubt he would go, unless Unsworth goes to manage Wigan (as rumoured), then he may take Leighton with him.

I had to read your post twice to ensure that what I was reading was actually not some sort of mirage. After castigating the club and Leighton Baines, in your opening sentences, you finish off by saying "Btw, I like him, he's done a good job for us and seems a good bloke, he's just not a winning footballer." I wonder how you regard people you don't like.

Hi Jerome [31],

You say that "Leighton Baines was a really good right-back and can still put in a performance." I'm well into the autumn of my life, and like a lot of people my age I find that my memory is not as good as it was... I can't recall him playing at right-back. I'm not saying he hasn't, I'm merely saying that I can't recall it.

I thought it might be Baines from the crosses Suter was sending in. Maybe Baines was the stand-in/ action double!

Sam H.,

Did you write the line for the owner of the shirt factory about having orders from clubs that included Everton?

Mike P.,

I cannot even believe that you and I are thinking of the same player based upon your scathing review. However, it is your opinion and I can respect that you hold one even if I cannot respect the opinion itself.

That said, he will have to keep going till he's 41 to achieve that. Unrealistic but if he keeps as fit, as others have mentioned, then who knows. Sorry, Mike. 😉

2-nil down to Leicester and we pull one back, decibels start to rise, cue final few minutes, step up Leighton Baines with not just an unbelievable goal, but a roar that has not been heard for many a season, those few minutes before the final whistle were deafening.

Just a shame we blew it with the penalty kicks as yes, I know Baines had his saved, but, before the end of 90 minutes, Baines brought Goodison alive again.

Of course. . . right back.

Baines is useless, Kylie doesn't have a great bum and can I add, Calvert-Lewin doesn't have a whole body to die for, never mind bum!

Bainesy may have been one of our best, most intelligent & loyal players, but importantly, still is. Thereby deserves the contract offer. Age is just a number. If you're good enough, you're young enough. Simples!

Regardless of the debate as to whether or not Leighton Baines should be given a current contract extension, Mike Price #20 states that Baines "has barely ever been good enough".

Without doubt one of the most idiotic statements I've seen on ToffeeWeb in years. End of.

Reading your comments on Leighton Baines makes me think you have only been watching Everton for the last 2 seasons, where admittedly, Baines was like a number of players nearing the end of their careers, relying on their experience and not their pace to get them through the game.

He has been offered a 1-year extension to his existing contract, as he is the best alternative as back-up to Digne at the club, and it is not as a sentimental gesture.

We need to sign players for other positions in this next transfer window plus get rid of other players who are not in the manager's future plans, and that is why the manager feels okay with the left-back coverage, and he can concentrate on trying to get players in for the more critical positions we need.

The other major asset that Baines brings is his professional attitude that younger players take note of, on how to conduct yourself as a professional football player with a major professional club.

That is why Baines and a number of other professionals are retained by their clubs at the end of their careers, for their attitudes toward training, keeping fit, and their overall commitment towards their clubs, and conducting themselves with pride in their playing careers.

I've watched Everton for decades and watched them win things. Baines is fairly small and was targeted for this, lacked pace and aggression and did not appear to have a winning character. Carragher said as much about players like him and Osman being friendly in the tunnel before derby games, whilst he and Gerrard wanted to tear our heads off. One set of players won things and the others didn't.

We're so starved of success that decent players over the last 20 years get put on pedestals.

Only a good left foot? That's just not true.

Baines had a 3- or 4-year spell where he was without a doubt the second-best left-back in the world. Alaba was better but I can't think of anyone else who was.

I do agree with you on our overall 'too nice' approach though. Over the years, you very rarely saw Jagielka or Baines approach a ref and, when they did, it was usually laughing and joking with them when they should have been going crazy at their appalling efforts (blatant cheating in some cases).

A full-back is only as good as the player covering the space in-front of him. If he has to push too far forward, he can be 9 ft tall and still never reach the ball put over the top behind him.

The rest re the derby etc, spot on. We've been too nice for too long.