Pienaar move still not concluded

Don't get me wrong Pienarr is a great player with a good relationship with Baines but that's not to say if we brought somebody else in they wouldn't be able to play well and link up with baines.

As for this story. Well, it's exactly what we all know isn't it. Talks are ongoing. Let's hope it's concluded soon and he's back in an Everton shirt

It's our usual lack of "arguments" on the transfer front.

The facts are that the transfer markets are fairly static this year, money is tight. As far as I'm aware/have read, we had no better offers for yobo in the 2 years we were loaning him out, and as far as I'm aware, no-one has yet come in for piennar other than us. I dont remember clubs knocking at our door when he was with us either, apart from when he was in the last year of contract.

So please, lets wait and see what happens. He may or may not come to us. But suggesting that there are loads of clubs prepared to pay good money for players is simply not true.

It would be very embarassing (and could potentially damage the reputation of the club) if we didn't make this move happen, so I think it will still happen even though I agree that £4 - 5 million may be sufficient to chance on a younger player.

In my book, Pienaar came back a better player than he was when he left us. I suspect that a Youtube compilation, starting with his goal against Chelsea, would lead many people to think that he is actually worth more than the fee Spurs are trying to get for him.

Its a tricky situation.

Once again, we don't have a pot and now need to sell from an already depleted squad to stand still. We are now 9 players down on last season with only Naismith with a dodgy knee coming in.

I know it's tight out there, I know we are broke with the banks on our case but if this article is true then Bill should hold his hands up and just walk because he has zero nouse in running a club.

But don't worry: if we don't get Pienaar, I am sure that we will get some no-mark in on loan at the deadline... typical Blues.

Although I like him very much, he is 30 and I'm sure there is adequate cover in the Academy/Reserves to see us thruogh. Do we still have Barkley on the books? Junior mean anything?

If it doesn't happen, so what? If it does... good. I wouldn't go paying silly money: £3M max.

How can you say that Bill Kenwright has zero nouse in running a football club?

He has been on the board since 1989, so thats 23 years of experience (is this 23 more years of running a professional football club than you?). There are many things that can be levelled at him - but this is not one of them.

We're a Premier League club, we are top 8 material, we've been in Europe under his reign, we aren't about to do a Leeds. We aren't in fashionable London, and we have an ageing stadium and little assets.

The latter things are not Kenwright's fault; the former things are what we are under his tenure. I'm no Kenwright fan – but I will chip in when people make stupid comments.

Those who think the grass is always greener – well, really, I worry about your business and life experience, as it seems extremely optimistic/naive.

You don't need to answer, I already know..

Kenwright is a charlatan and this club will never progress whilst he sits in his ivory tower lording it over his decaying empire

How many take overs have there been in the last 10 years, and how many have seen the clubs involved increase in stature as a result? It's a small percentage.

I'm not BK's biggest supporter but some of the vitriol aimed at him by 'fans' is totally unwarranted.

I think we should really be looking for someone younger with resale value, I have said it time and time again over the last month or so, we really should have been trying to bring in Junior Hoilett his wage demands would be in the same area as Pienarr and would cost around the same amount.

If we don't bring a single winger in this transfer window I would be incredibly annoyed with the board, but if we look for something different i'd understand we took a risk on somebody else if it doesn't work fine but there was an attempt, we are being held to ransom over a 30 year old that can't get a game at his current club.

After all those years of marvellous stewardship.
We still cant buy a player for a relatively paltry transfer fee.

"If anything, he's more than happy to accept he's not the ideal owner for the club." — Phil Sammon... well that's okay then, let him keep running it into oblivion, mate. Perhaps if he wasn't trying to sell it for £100 million above its actual value then we might have some sympathy.

Well, you can keep him; I am rightly pissed off.....

But to answer your question Phil, yes I do think the only chance we have to hit the same standard of football as the second half of last year is if we resign Peinaar. The reason for this is the technical ability of the rest of the team is limited compared to him. We have a great defensive shape. we have have a genuine goalscorer and hopefully have another player in Naismith to help be more clinical in the final third.

However how many other players are capable of recieving the ball in tight areas and still starting attacks? How many other of our players see a pass like him? He not only makes things happen with the ball at his feet but his constant movement off the ball when we have posession creates space for other. Then when he gets into key areas he makes good decisions.

He isn't God. He won't win us the league but he does make us tick. I don't believe we can get that from another player for the same price and there is no way we can expect anyone to come through the youth system and fill that void with no experience behind them. It isn't realist to think someone like Hoilett would deliver more in the next 4 years

Hoilett was a good shout on one of the above posts. Michu was also available for around 2m but I think he has gone to Swansea now. As has De Guzman also an exciting winger. My point really was it's dangerous to put all our eggs in the Pienaar basket as I have a feeling it will all end in tears.

For me he is absolutely crucial and possibly the difference between really making an impact next season and struggling badly.

Age isn't just about losing pace, it's about becoming more injury prone, losing your touch and losing your speed of thought. Pienaar has 2 years max left at this level and that's why paying anything over £2.5 million would be criminal. If any club is willing to pay more then good luck to them.

Moyes wanted to reduce the age of the team when he came and he should stick to his principles. Barkley deserves his chance and this Junior fella looks lively too. Pienaar isn't the be all and end all and Spurs can fuck off if they think they can hold us to ransom.

"Sell me to Everton, I will sign for no one else but them, and if you don't I will quite happy to rot on your bench earning 60K plus a week"

It's called player power and it does work, as we have seen first hand!!

They are within their rights to keep Pienaar and EFC sweating right up to August 31st so it's up to our Board to either wait it out — and hope that no one steps in in the meantime — or find the money now.

And the legs go, not the touch. There's no reason we cant get three seasons out of him and whilst we are potentially paying more than we'd like, we need him.

Secondly, he is a prem player but we should take our £4 million elsewhere? If you think we can get anywhere around the class of Pienaar for anything around that amount, then you're seriously deluding yourselves.

His goal return worries me, for £5m and 60k a week, I would expect 8-10 goals a season from someone who is given licence to roam.

Fellaini is best as a D.M. so there is a big problem where our midfield goals will come from now Tim has departed. If we could sign another midfielder who would give us the goals - Pienaar makes sense, but if £5m is our budget for the summer, I would be tempted to look for someone a little more prolific.

Add in the rumour that Yobo has called off fenerbace deal and it seems peanuts might be heading to cash rich QPR! If he does then it wasn't meant to be and we move on...possibly to Jarvis from Wolves?

In the 24 league games prior to Pienaar’s arrival, Everton scored just 24 goals, but in the 14 matches with the South African, they struck 26 times. He also created 32 chances in that short spell, third only to Leon Osman and Leighton Baines with 38 and 67 respectively, but over the course of a full season.

With respect to Pienarr; we desperately need a creative force. I would say it's worth 3-4 league places to us, because without creativity, we will not be breaching the top half of the league, and Osman cannot take the creative burden alone. Pienarr played only 14 games for us when he returned..and scored 4 goals and made 6 assists. That's how important he is to the team. This article actually does a pretty good job of a breakdown of some of the stats (although there are of course other factors at work) http://www.eplindex.com/14856/everton-steven-pienaar-vital-dispensable-opta-stats.html

The theory of spending the money on youngsters is good...but what youngster/s? it's not possible to just say 'let's spend the money on a younger player'. 1) Who is available who could provide his kind of influence, on his wages, and who would want to come? the only player I considered as preferable to Pienarr was Hoilett, but he would not have his influence. Sometime there is a time to buy young, and other times to buy a player we have confidence in. If it was a DC, with the amount we have, i'd say buy young. But given that our only true creative player is Osman (We will see about Naismith), we cannot risk bringing in someone unproven to take the burden.

I'd also rather have Pienarr than Arteta, and we sold him for 10mil, at a similar age.

Tim has had horrible injuries, having broken his foot 3-4 times and despite those injuries has been played when needed by moyes and surely, his career span must have diminished at the top level. His asian cup injury was the final straw and after regaining match fitness 8 months later it just wasn't the same Cahill who had been labeled more or less a "god" for his goals in the first half of 2010-2011.

It makes me sick that we have to sacrifice a club legend for some 30 year old who once left us for money, such is the plight of being an evertonian. But in retrospect this will most likely be the best decision; Pienaar is what we need and he will surely longer than Cahill.

Unless we have someone else worth £2.5 million for immediate sale?

So, apart from all of the above (and more I probably forgot to mention... Oh yeah he wants £150 million for the club!) now Bill is worthy of being called a PRAT in my opinion.

The Blue Union is only going to get more popular.

And I thought £5 million was too much when I heard the supposed figure... and most of us seem to think so. But in reality, what price do we think is fair? £3 million? £3 million for one of the best performers in the league from January onwards, who has proven he plays well for us?... Really? £4-5 million is probably fair.

And Peter, if we have a wage structure to protect, I don't see how it's Moyes's fault. How much of this club do you think he controls? Last time I checked, it's not Moyes's fault we lack financial bite, is it? A lot of clubs have lost players because of a failure to break wage structures (and I think Spurs' Champions League prospects played an obvious part in the move)...

Arsenal's loss of Flamini because of his wage demands, who had a market price of at least £10million at the time, is a good example and they've suffered ever since with the failure to find a comparable disciplined defensive midfielder... but, whereas Arsenal didn't go back for Flamini, didn't swallow their pride when he fell out of favour, we conversely are displaying a different attitude. I'm glad we are as well.

We sold Pienaar for £3 million, with six months left on his contract, got him on loan most probably without a fee given the implications of the Saha deal, and will probaly buy him back for £4-5 million. Ultimately it's not a terrible loss. It's a shame, but we needed Pienaar, and no-one on here has suggested a suitable replacement.

With respect to Zaha, he is a good player but not at Pienaar's level, and would cost more than Pienaar. Bolton had a £7 million bid rejected, and I can't see us getting for much less than £10 million.

Shame about Michu actually... although he plays in a different position – Swansea have pulled off a fantastic deal in gettting him for £2 million. But then, interested or not, we evidently don't have the money.

On the matter of finance, isn't it funny how Baines is rumoured to have rejected Man U after Everton accepted an offer, and now Heitinga is suddenly the rumoured departure de jour. Bill really is working 24/7 to get some money in...

I would rate Pienaar higher then Drenthe, but if we can not get the deal trough then I think we should sign Drenthe. He is young and has many years ahead of him, he can learn to adapt and become more like Pienaar. I would prefer getting both of them as I see no other real options, we lack the money to really have other options.

I remember Drenthe had his fit, but without Pienaar who else is there, after all he did give us goals and assists, which we lack right now.

I can not see this season being any good without creative wingers, no matter how good Jelavic is he can not do it all.

The question of value for money is invalid, without Pienaar we will never be able to end up among the 7-8th best.

The club is now bankrupt to the extent we cannot even afford a couple of million having let Drenthe, Straquilirsi, Donovan, Cahill and Yobo go let alone some of the kids.

Everton are being run like a corner sweet shop in fact it's not even that good.

Never mind the lack of finances we havent even got a clue how to negotiate a deal.

We are acting like Chester City not a premiership club.

FFS Bill hurry up and go and take "friends of Everton" with you.

The real problem is we are still up shit creek with no paddle financially. We can't even scrape together 2.5m for a signing. Unless Yobo goes there is no funds. All our tv revenue goes straight to whoever Bullshit bill took his payday loans from. The rest barely covers the wage bill. Pienaar is pretty irrelevant in the grandscale of things. Until we get our house in order we will never rise above mid table. Year in year out more players leave than are brought in and this year will be no different.