Pienaar to resume full training

Shame about this season as him and Baines down the left was always a strong partnership. However, having just turned 33, I'm not sure whether it's worth keeping him till his contract is up next year. The £60k/wk wages could come in very handy signing someone else.

Pursuading him to leave might not be too easy. I think he'll be with us next season imo.

We only have a few "skillful" players who can unlock defences and he is one of them.

Get fit soon, Steven.

There's also the factor nobody can halt and that's age; as the body gets older, it's harder to recover from injuries.

Pienaar has been one of my favorite players over the last 8 years and I'd love to see him have one last hurrah and throw in some cameo moments before he hangs up his boots. It's probably unlikely now but I wish him all the best.

He is like Mirallas, he was quick to join Spurs and then found out he wasn't as good as he thought. There is an old saying: "never go back". We should never have bought him from Spurs.

There are better younger players than this guy. He also has a strange streak. Loving God and beating up women... Does not sit right with me.

I'm all for moving him along in the summer and using his wages for a younger player, only I don't see this happening as there are a few other players further to the front of the queue that need shifting. Also, I don't see another club matching his wages so he'll likely sit out his contract. Elephant in the room is of course will RM be shown the door if he has truly lost the squad.

Generally moving players on at the right time has been a skill that Moyes lacked and I'm not sure if RM has it either. SAF was a master at shifting players just before they started going downhill. So often people thought he was mad selling a player when he did... only to see it was the right decision not too long after.

We ideally need to shift the likes of Pienaar and cash in on Baines too. Both players are two of our top earners and Baines's resale value will dive in the next year or two. He may still be our best LB but likely not for much longer as age catches up with him. If we were offered anywhere near £10M or more I'd sell.

Baines has been poor since – surprise surprise – he signed a new contract.

Look to the future and get Garbutt signed up.

He won't be a starter, but he is a vastly experienced international who knows how to take care of the ball.

What's the worst that can happen?

Pienaar is one of, if not the best, technical footballer we have and he is definitely key to our complete lack of creativity and play down the wing. Being schooled at Ajax he is someone who has the brains as well as the feet and it shows this season that both him and Osman have been missing.

It is no coincidence that Pienaar is always targeted by the opposition and is booted up in to the air with all too frequent regularity; without him we are poorer. Good news

Roberto's assessments of McGeady (this time last year) and Atsu at the beginning of the season have not come to fruit anyway.

He said of Atsu that he would catch fire in the second half of the season and take the league by storm... Hmmmmm, okay Roberto.

And about this time last year apparently McGeady would be physically fit and in tune with the league by last summer hence why would see this dazzling twinkle-toed winger throughout this season... errrrrrr... nope wrong again.

Pienaar on his day would be in the team ahead of these two without a question and playing Naismith or Barkley out wide is also something I want to see stopped after this season.

Mirallas can play out wide left, of course, but it won't be in the blue of Everton next season unless Duncan Ferguson becomes his agent!!

I hope he can contribute something to the rest of the season; as for next, who knows?

Will he be the same player if/when he comes back? I doubt it.

"Beating up women" — Do you have a shred of evidence to back that up, or are you just demonstrating a willingness to believe any unsubstantiated allegations you read in the papers?

To my knowledge, there was no verdict, no court case, there wasn't even a charge... but It was in the paper, so it must be true.

Unbelievable!

One of my favourite players of recent years but, as with Osman, we must move on. He may have something to contribute next season but it will be marginal.

Whatever does that have to do with if he believes in some god?

And, really, how many years (8-9?) since he was alleged to have assaulted a woman? What the fuck?

Pienaar was part of our best ever Premier League team... and I'm not talking about our current squad. People on here keep harping on about our current squad being the best we've had in the Premier League era – it isn't.

The 2007-08 squad was better:

Howard
Hibbert
Jagielka
Lescott
Baines
Osman
Fernandes
Neville
Arteta
Pienaar
Cahill
Yakubu
Johnson

That squad was full of creative players (like Pienaar) in their prime (unlike today's squad) and had a strong back 4, plenty of goals in it and lots of character. It was a team that finished 5th in the League, got to the quarter-final of the Uefa Cup, eventually losing to Fiorentina on penalties, and beat the winners (Zenit St Petersburg) in the group stages.

Hopefully in the summer, Martinez and his scouts can identify some players of the calibre of Arteta, Fernandes and Pienaar because we are really lacking players of that quality.

We've missed his assurance with the ball and his link-up play with Baines, who was that good because of Pienaar and often Osman putting him in.

Perhaps we didn't truly appreciate what we had and why we've struggled turning defence (possession) into attack. The players who've been playing simply aren't as good.

Every one is banging on about replacing Ozzie and Pienaar, but with who? Tom Cleverly, because that's who this fool of a manager wants.

Hopefully Pienaar can have some game time like Ozzie he makes a difference.

Like Osman, he lacks pace and a decent shot, but if he had those two attributes I very much doubt he would be playing for Everton. His awareness, vision and ability to spot short passes and retain possession has been sorely missed.

We end up stuck with aging, substandard players that aren't good enough, rarely or shouldn't play, and literally you can't give away, eg, Howard, Hibbert, Barry, Kone, Osman, McGeady, Distin and a hundred others from earlier eras.

In turn, that unbalances and unsettles the rest of the squad who are playing regularly but are on half the money.

2007-08 was a good squad, good numbers and good variety of creative attacking midfielders and defensive dogs.

We will soon see how stretched our squad will be next week if Lukaku and Kone are both out... it will be Naismith (who's not a striker for me) leading the line.

Lee Carsley
James McFadden (was he any worse that McGeady or Atsu?)
Alan Stubbs
Nuno Valente
Victor Anichebe
James Vaughan

Stop-gap players but they could come off the bench and do a suitable job.

A good strong centre half..

Alcaraz or Yobo???

I know who'd I'd rather have had.

I worry he may well be finished. I also think that Atsu may well become a decent player. He has had a tough year, adapting to the English game and a new team; will not be the first though or the last. Would possibly be looking to extend the loan for next year.

Certainly our midfield could be a lot better.

As to whether he is past his best, well probably the answer is Yes, but I'd still have a fit Steven Pienaar in our matchday squad every day, given the personnel we have.

Bite the bullet – sell!!!

Pienaar's game doesn't rely on pace alone so being 33 doesn't deter him, providing he stays fit, from a season or two more. I'd also like to see the option of Baines being pushed forward into Pienaar's role with Oviedo slotting in at left back. I think they could do well together. Baines played for England further forward last night at times and looked very comfortable there.

Anyway, I reckon Pienaar has been brilliant for us from day one, even when he came back from Spurs! He knew when he went there he'd made a mistake; coming back on loan, at the end of season he was really emotionally buggered.

I definitely don't agree with Tom Owen: when he signed back on, he was excellent. I would not blame Pienaar one bit if he sat out the last season of his contract with us. Would any one of us knock back a last payday of a few million?

He did have a good understanding of course with Baines for a period of time but his goal return leaves a lot to be desired and in fact his goal return per games played is pretty lamentable. Other than a handful of notable exceptions, eg, chipped goal at the Emirates, I often found his shooting ability, for a player of his technical abilities, was equally pretty poor.

I also feel that his return from Spurs was in fact ill-judged. I think it elevated him to a status, perhaps in his own mind, perhaps elsewhere in the club, and perhaps among some elements of the fan base that was rarely justified by his performances. Obviously, whatever the injuries are that have restricted his appearances so severely this season, they will have done nothing to facilitate any effective contribution he could make to the evolution of this squad and as such I would think that his role at Everton is somewhat at an end.

Says more about Martinez's management though, that he is relying on these older players to pull him out of a hole. What's up with playing and sticking with a few youngsters? Sorry, that was a stupid question. Martinez doesn't stick with inform youngsters.

As for the 2007-08 squad mentioned above, was it really a better squad than this current bunch? Howard in goal, he was IMO always a dodgy GK. And Moyes was always ultra defensive, playing Neville in MF. And our forwards, for some reason, only performed for one season.

Frustrating being an Evertonian. Over the years, our squads on paper have not looked that bad. But in reality, we never performed. Little old me thinks we overlooked one very important position. We never had a decent manager. And we still don't.

You're right of course. Moyes did put together a decent squad of players with relatively little money, but he was a miserable sod who wanted the players and the crowd to be as cautious as he was.

Martinez is also a miserable sod (three defensive mids) and isn't at the same level as the players he inherited.

Frying pan/fire.

You can make that point about Pienaar's goal return but if you look at other Everton wide players over the last 20 years, there's only been Kanchelskis who you can truly say has had a good goal return.

Perhaps it's been an Everton thing, who knows?

What Pienaar has been since we first stumbled upon him, he's been a creative busy inventive player; to give him his due, he has always put in a great shift when he has been playing.

I would rather keep him even if he just has a bit part role for the next season or so. He has the ability to come on for 30 mins and change a game, we don't have many like this at the moment.

About his move to Spurs – I remain convinced the main reason Redknapp and Levi bought him for £3M was to split his partnership with Baines up. We would have beaten Spurs to the Uefa Cup position that year if they had stayed together.

Some supporters are so harsh and reactionary, it's unreal. Pienaar has obviously been missed and should obviously be given another chance when he's fit.

You can't blame players for getting older or getting injured and then moan about their wages. That's madness.

Or maybe even try playing all three... Why not? Pienaar will now only be a bit part player. I have watched him closely in the last couple of years, (and yes, he can make a killer pass), but he also gives the ball away far too much. But so do a number of players under Martinez's tippy-tappy nonsense.

And yes, Darren, I have noticed what you have said about our last two managers. Again, I must state that I don't "hate" any Everton manager. But I want more from Everton. And I firmly believe that, should Kenwright be ambitious and brave, then with the right manager in control, that Everton can move on to a higher level. Why not?

Kenwright has played everything nice and safe with Moyes and Martinez. And these two managers have played everything nice and safe with their players. FFS – Neville, Barry, Carsley, Howard, Hibbert, Osman, McFadden, Distin – and bringing Pienaar back to Everton. And yes, their hands are tied with our useless board, but by Christ, our last two managers sure as hell can play safe.

And not to mention our 4-5-1 set up. Eleven years of that from Moyes. And now even worse from Martinez. God help us.

This thread is about Pienaar, a player closer to retiring, than anything else. I wonder where the next Mckenzie or Thomas or Steven or Sheedy or Gray is coming from? Or how about unearthing a Latchford? That's what I want at Everton – a manager and a board that can recognise and bring that sort of talent to the club. Not players of the calibre of Alcaraz, McGeady, and Barry. It's actually a long time since I was happy with an Everton manager. A long time.

Rant over. And I will keep on dreaming. You never know. Kenwright might just surprise us all. Hopefully.

Players have contracts and clubs honour them because they gave them to them in the first place.