The Sunday press are reporting that Everton are to offer Steven Pienaar a 'record breaking' £55,000 four-year deal to stay at the club.
To be honest I'm not really sure about this. For starters - Isn't Johnny Heitinga our top earner and broke our wage structure last season?
Secondly has this anything to do with Pienaar's average World Cup? He was blatently holding out for a bumper move after a sucessful tournament in South Africa but now it appears he could sign on after all.
There is also specualtion regarding a new deal for Mikel Arteta, with the Spaniard set to commit his best years to the club. These tow deals would more or less tie the core of our side to long-term deals, which can only be a good thing. going forward.
Plus it distracted me from the disaster that is Engand's World Cup campaign - more of that later!
Everton have moved a step closer to keeping Steven Pienaar at Goodison – after manager David Moyes went to the World Cup with an offer to make the South African the highest-paid player in the club’s history.
Moyes, who is in Johannesburg as a radio pundit, visited Pienaar at the host nation’s training camp to table a four-year deal worth £55,000 a week.
The offer is within Everton’s tight pay structure, but would make the 28-year-old the club’s top earner.
The Merseysiders are now awaiting a response from the winger and his agent.
Pienaar has just one year left on his existing agreement and Tottenham have been monitoring the contract impasse.
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has been weighing up a £10million bid after Pienaar rejected two previous contract offers.
Moyes has made it clear that his valuation of the midfielder is closer to the £20m mark.
And he has already told the Goodison board that he would prefer to hold Pienaar to the final 12 months of his contract than sell him in a cut-price deal.
That prompted the Everton hierarchy to draft a third offer to the player during the World Cup.
Moyes is hoping that it will be enough to secure Pienaar’s future.
The Everton boss rescued the Johannesburg-born playmaker from a nightmare spell at Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund.
Pienaar’s career had hit the buffers in Germany after he initially arrived in Europe with Dutch giants Ajax.
Moyes paid Dortmund a £350,000 loan fee for the player in 2007. The deal included a clause which enabled Everton to make the move permanent for a further £2m. Pienaar was exceptional for the Blues this season and was voted the club’s player of the year.
But he has struggled in a faltering South Africa team at the World Cup