Rodwell Signing Official

Well, its official. Jack Rodwell has signed a five-year contract to stay at Everton. This is big relief, and the club can now turn it's attention to signing Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar!

Jack Rodwell Snubs Manchester United

I almost cried when I heard the news, but I didn't. Why? Because it isn't official yet. Oh how I hope this comes into fruition.

Mail Online and Goal.com are reporting that Jack Rodwell has turned down an offer by Man U. He is instead set to sign a five-year contract with Everton worth around 30,000 pounds per week.

If this story is true, it will be a huge sigh of relief for the club and the fans. We will now be able to turn our attention to keeping Arteta and Pienaar.

Lescott Deja Vu

Everton has sent a strong message to both Arsenal and Manchester United that Phil Jagielka is not for sale. This seems eerily familiar to how the Joleon Lescott affair started out. Not to say this will play out exactly the same, because Lescott wanted to leave and was vocal about it. Just saying that this was how it started last year too.

Here's some other transfer rumors and news:

-Since there are a number of clubs keen on securing West Ham's Carlton Cole, West Ham is looking at Yakubu as a possible replacement. There is definitely a possibility that Moyes is willing to sell Yakubu as long as a decent price is offered. Yakubu has struggled to find form since returning from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Sources: ESPN and Goal.com.

- I don't know how good this source is so you are going to have to bear with me, but tribalfootball.com says that we may be in the race (with Aston Villa) to sign Tottenham winger David Bentley. A fee 10 million pounds seems like a bargain.

- This news is a little late but Dan Gosling is ahead of schedule in his recovery from knee surgery. He was projected to be out for 9 months, but is expected to recover sooner than that according to BBC Sport.

- Marseille's Hatem Ben Arfa is on David Moyes' radar yet again. He has had a great season with the Ligue 1 winners and has voiced his interest for playing in England. "To have a chance to play in England would be wonderful but the sporting project is more interesting to me than any sums of money." Source: Goal.com
Seems like David Moyes is getting ready to replace Steven Pienaar in case he leaves. David Bentley and Hatem Ben Arfa are both wingers like Pienaar and would be good, cheap replacements.

Rumor Central

There are about 8 billion rumors surrounding a lot of our players. I am going to try and go through as many as possible. Just remember most of these are RUMORS, not reality.

- Many sources say that we are the likely destination of Jermaine Beckford from Leeds United via free transfer. Not official yet, but I love this move. If it happens, that is.

- Landon Donovan said he would love to come back to Everton. This obviously will not happen until the LA Galaxy have had their say. But it looks like we have the leg up on other clubs if they choose to transfer him.

- According to Goal.com and Mirror Football, contract talks to extend Mikel Arteta have stalled. Manchester United and Arsenal are both highly interested. This worries me a lot. I love Arteta and I think he is one of the most important players on our team. We need to keep him.

- We are being linked with Craig Bellamy of Manchester City, according to Goal.com and Dailymail.co.uk. This is a surprise. Supposedly, he is to cost 7 million pounds for the transfer and high weekly wages, so the only way we could sign him would be with a sale of players. I'm going to be honest, I have always hated Bellamy, but I can't deny that he's a pretty good striker. He would provide a spark whether its from the bench or starting, something Yakubu and Saha have failed to do consistently.

I'm going to go in depth in a future post, but I thought the only missing piece for Everton during the second half of the season was striker. Saha performed phenomenally, but was really streaky and disappeared near the end. Looks like we are really addressing that issue. I can't refrain from saying that I am scared, though. We were perfect at midfield and three major pieces can be taken away from us. As long as we keep at least two (preferably Arteta and Rodwell), I think we will be fine. As much as I love Pienaar, I think he is dispensable, especially if we get a good striker or two.

Pienaar to Decide Future After World Cup

Remember when I said Everton and Steven Pienaar are working out a deal before the World Cup starts so they can be at peace. Well that's not going to happen according to BBC Sports. Pienaar explained that he prefers to stay, "I've made it clear before that I want to stay at Everton".

" We will just have to wait and I made it clear to the manager also that we will talk after the World Cup."

This makes me nervous. If we want a shot at contending for the top four, we need Pienaar.

This also made me nervous:

"When asked if he believes he will be at Everton next season, Pienaar said: 'If God wants me to come back after the World Cup healthy and happy then I'll be there'."

Steven Pienaar wins Player of the Year (and other news)

- Steven Pienaar won Everton player of the year. Leighton Baines was voted as the "players' player of the year" (I know it sounds weird, but I took it right out of BBC Sport). Jack Rodwell was named young player of the year.

- Marouane Fellaini seems to be ahead of schedule in his injury rehab. According to Everton's website, Fellaini is targeting to be back July or August, just in time for the pre-season campaign.

- This rumor came out a couple of days ago on goal.com. Supposedly Moyes wants to get Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha (reportedly for £3.75 million). I think this is a good move, he is a very good young defender but he does have a lot of injury problems. One thing Everton is lacking is depth. The club's players have a propensity to getting injured, and this would be nice insurance.

-Everton's women squad beat Arsenal to win the Women's FA Cup for the first time. Nice to see the club achieving something, even if it is the women's team.

Everton Updates

Alright, so I've all but given hope on Everton making it to Europe. We need Liverpool to lose their next two matches while we win ours. Seems highly unlikely, especially because Liverpool plays a woeful Hull City on May 9th.

So I'm going to stop talking about it and instead start talking about how our club can finish strong and look forward to contending for the title next season! It's been quite a while since we've had a team that was strong enough to have these types of expectations, but as long as our team stays somewhat intact, I think this is possible. I will talk about what went right, what went wrong, as well as changes we need to make to the club after the season ends (World Cup coverage too).

For now, these are a couple of things that have happened that i missed the last couple of days.

- Looks like The Toffees have put a £20 million dollar price tag on Steven Pienaar. Contract negotiations have also stalled. I like the price tag, so we don't lose him, but my biggest fear of all is that he doesn't sign, he plays for us next season and then leaves on a free transfer. Hopefully the club sorts this out, but I would rather him sign or leave (so we get the transfer money), no in between.

- David Moyes has been linked to Manchester United, which makes me nervous. Even though he said there is no way the news is true, it would be a HUGE blow to Everton. He has made some spectacular signings as well as getting Everton to play and contend for the top half of the Prem League.

- The Toffees have become favorites to sign Paul Scharner from Wigan. I don't know if I would like this signing. He is a good player from a mediocre team, but he plays a position where we have a lot of talent.

- Both Mikel Arteta and Victor Anichebe are trying to get last minute call-ups to their respective World-Cup squads. Mikel Arteta has been paying excellent football but is trying to make an already stacked midfield on the Spanish National Team. Victor Anichebe on the other hand is most likely trying for a backup role on the Nigerian National Team, where there have been some injuries (Yakubu will most likely make the roster). Other current players on Everton that will most likely be included on their national squads are: Tim Cahill (Australia), Phillippe Senderos (Switzerland), Tim Howard (USA), Yakubu (Nigeria), Luois Saha (France), Steven Pienaar (South Africa), John Heitinga (Holland), and Joseph Yobo (Nigeria).

Steven Pienaar seems to want his future resolved sooner rather than later, according to this article by skysports.com. Pienaar wants to know where he will be next year before the World Cup begins. This is a great thing for Everton because most likely we will either sign an extension with him or sell him, instead of letting him go for free after next season.

Pienaar plays the attacking midfielder role perfectly for Everton, but I am not so sure he would fit in with every club. At this time, we know that Tottenham along with Man U. and Liverpool are interested in him(maybe some other foreign clubs too).

The two big question marks next season are Jack Rodwell and Pienaar, and although I would like both of them to stay, I would rather keep Rodwell. David Moyes seems hell-bent on keeping everyone so we may be able to sign Pienaar, but I am not too worried, as long as we get a good price for him.

Hopefully, this problem sees a solution soon so we don't have another last minute scramble to find a replacement player (like the Joleon Lescott incident).