Pienaar deal could be done next week

Next , sell Anichebe and Yobo to finance the deal, and find some reddies for another striker. With all the outs, we'll have money for wages. But naff all for a fee.

Thanks for the education.

We probably received £1m of that and have waived the remaining £2m and agreed to pay a further £1m up front, with the rest in installments - taking it up to £5m.

Which means we only had to find £1m now. The delay is more than likely due to the fact that Spurs are about to lose Modric and have already lost Krancjar, which means that their attacking midfield options are Van der Vaart or Pienaar (both of whom have been linked with exits). I think Spurs are dragging their feet in case they can't get anyone else in in time.

Unless it fell down the back of Phillip Green's or Robert Earl's sofa that is.

Then we may spend the cash on Pienaar, unless the banks get it first.

If this is the case, then we may be waiting a very long time for his return....

Hope he comes back but hope its for nearer £3M then £5M.

ps, the more I read that tosser Green at newco, the more I think Rangers need to start again: Div 3, and FIFA tell them, "We are FIFA, you don't run us like you think you do Scottish football. Rangers company is dead; it did not even pay its taxes, and had no right to sell football players' contracts behind their backs without any consultation. As such all players of the old Club are not slaves, and free to leave that dead company."

I do agree with Sam that if we'd have agreed a better wage offer with him before he left we'd have a lot more in the "bank" now and while I understand Roberto's point of principle we paid Arteta 75000 a week and I would argue his contribution was far less at the time and that didnt cause a backlash from the other players.

If there is an outstanding performer in the squad most players will accept them getting paid more. It happens at every club.

IMO the problem is more that the likes of Anichebe get 30000 per week.

It is obscene what players wages have risen to and that needs to be looked at by football's governing body although it may already be too late.

The reason for this was that the club believed they would then have a player on a huge wage who would not command a large fee if sold. This is backed up by the fact that many on here believe £5m is too much for him. Arteta was given a higher wage because otherwise he would have left on the cheap. Because they offered him big money he signed the contract and they were able to get £10m for him. I was told this while the negotiations were going on, and again recently, by somebody genuinely 'ITK'.

I said on another thread recently, it's not a coincidence that the protracted negotiations for Fellaini's contract were concluded shortly after Arteta left, it freed up money for a big earner that wasn't there while they were paying somebody else the megabucks.

18 months later, with him playing better for us than he ever has, two years left on his Spurs contract? I would have to accept that £5M is not an unreasonable fee. If he hadn't been ours before, would we be complaining?

The biggest thing for me is he's a known quantity and Moyes favourite. That means there'll be none of the 'beddding in' bullshit from Dithering Davie. He'll be one of the first names on the teamsheet, and rightly so. In a big sense, that's what we're paying for.

If only we could get more end-product from him... but that's final third stuff where our coaching team is sadly lacking. Just as long as they don't coach it out of Jelavic!!!

Yes, he makes us tick; yes, he will settle in quick; yes, it's the right thing to do as I can't think of better. £5M for a younger version would make more sense in an ideal world, after the current board being bought out by a Euro millionaire rollover winner from L8.

Oh how I detest having to tip-toe through the rest of my life on eggshells for fear of upsetting anybody. Blatant racism or anti-Semitism is totally abhorrent, but who are we to judge the true intent of the person who has made such a comment. Perhaps that was the reason you put 3 question marks and exclamation marks after your comment.

I haven't actually encountered much racism at GP, and I haven't seen/heard the hissing when playing Spurs. The travelling support is pretty bad in this respect, though - I've seen and heard racist behaviour plenty of times and it's toe curling in its ignorance and openness. Sadly, I've never felt brave enough to challenge it. It won't stop them and it won't change their views.

"Back in London... Interesting days coming up..."

I guess we'll know soon.

What if we in such dire straits that we may have to sell a valuable player simply to pay £5 million for Pienaar? If that is the case then even paying £10 million for a player you could get 5 years of excellent service out of (or sell after 3 years for a tidy profit) may be better for the long term interests of EFC.

If Baines were sold would Pienaar work as well with another left-back (Bainesy does an awful lot of overlapping to deliver crosses) or would a pacier winger be better suited? We all want Pienaar back, but if the price rises beyond a certain point then considering alternatives makes sense as well. £5 million pounds is still sufficient money to coax a younger player with untapped potential from whatever club they are languishing at.