http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Steven-Pienaar-c34208 to Goodison Park, but was glad that it paid off.
The 49-year old Scott sold the South African footballer to Tottenham Hotspur for 3 million pounds in January, 2011. However, following a slow start to the Toffees 2011/12 campaign, Moyes signed him on loan in January this year to ease his midfield problems. The inventive schemer played the pivotal role then in the club’s resurgence, forcing his manager to pay an extra 1.5 million pounds to reclaim his services in the summer on permanent basis.
Although the Goodison Park chief viewed the deal as poor business, he insisted that Pienaar’s return was a profitable thing for the club in terms of football.
He revealed that the midfielder himself was desperate to return to Merseyside following his unsuccessful spell at White Hart Lane, and praised the impact that he has made since his comeback.
“We had to buy Steven back for more than we sold him for. That didn’t sit well with me because I didn’t particularly see it as a good business deal,” he told the reporters in an interview.
“But I knew, on the football side of things, he would make us better. Steven wanted to come back – that was the biggest thing. He wanted to come back more than anything and because of that it swayed me to do the deal.”
Everton rest at the sixth place in the current Premier League standings, after having collected 23 points from their 15 fixtures. The team may only have lost just 2 games in the season, but their form has been wayward of late, having drawn 7 of their last nine matches.
However, Moyes called upon the fans to exercise calm and patience, as he was confident that it was only a matter of team before the team resume their winning ways.
“There’s no need to panic, even though we could do with a couple more results,” he added.
The Toffees, who played out a 1-1 draw against Manchester City last week, will play host to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
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