Baines suffered a stomach ailment

I can see him moving on in January or the summer though as it's unfair to ask him to sit out his final years as a pro on the bench.

I think he'll stay until the end of the season and I don't think there would be any way Silva would allow or want to lose him in January, he must be the best backup left back in the league by a million miles; if Digne lost form or got injured, then Baines is back in.

This not sentimental guff. Whilst I think Jags should be allowed to move on, especially if we can land Zouma, finding a good back-up left-back is much harder and there are no youngsters that I can see that he is blocking.

That said, he may fancy more game time and it's not beyond the realms that he could do a job for ambitious promotion hopefuls such as Leeds or Villa. I'd even rate him ahead of Bournemouth's left-back (Daniels) and, given how they like to play, Baines would be a great fit. Bournemouth are not pre-occupied with defending deep, and can play 3 at the back.

There's not a marked difference between the levels of the two players and, if we want to be successful, we need to have two top-quality players in every position.

Baines will become a better player and flourish with the new, better players around him.

I can see a future for Baines, finally part of a competitive Everton squad again, and perhaps he can too... so let's not be too hasty about chucking him on the scrap heap just yet.

Plus, only having one senior, natural left-back caused us all sorts of problems last season so I don't expect he'll be going anywhere soon.

Great player for many years and, as mentioned above, would still do a very good job for 10-12 games over the season.

We need him until the end of the season; then, in the Summer, we can see if Robinson (on loan at Wigan) is able to be Digne's number two.

There is a lot of football to be played between now and May; Digne can't play all of it given we have the FA Cup. He will have been used to a winter break too which of course he won't have here.

I honestly believe we should keep him though (as long as he is happy winding down his game time) and should mix and match a bit with Digne as they are still playing at the same level for me.

It feels a bit like the Cech/Courtois issue Chelsea had. Old pro needs replacing long term but the new man wants to play straight away meaning old pro has to sit it out and this causes problems.

Unfortunately, we all know what happened with Cech, he believed he was still the number one choice and ended up leaving as Chelsea were looking long term.

Whatever Baines does (and I hope he stays) I wish him nothing but good things – he has shown in this modern day footballing world of greed and pampering how real professionals should behave and conduct themselves.