Everton plan to give Leighton Baines minimum 50% pay-rise after Manchester United transfer doesn't materialise
Toffees' left-back wanted to play in the Champions League but wouldn't hand in an official request to go the way Fellaini did
Jan Kruger
Everton will try to temper the obvious disappointment from Leighton
Baines of missing out on a move to Manchester United, by offering him a
massive new deal, writes David Maddock.
The defender had made clear he would like the chance of Champions League football, after the Old Trafford club made a concerted effort to land him before the transfer window slammed shut.
But local lad Baines - who watched the Blues from the Goodison terraces when he was a teenager - refused to hand in a transfer request.
He felt it would show a lack of respect to the club and their supporters.
Instead, he patiently waited for the situation to be resolved without any signs of frustration or lack of commitment.
Now, Everton want to reward that loyalty by giving him a new long-term deal.
Baines still has two years left to run on a contract signed in 2010 which pays him around £50,000 a week.
But new Everton boss Roberto Martinez has indicated he wants to make the defender one of the highest-paid players at the club, given his importance to the team.
The England star can expect a minimum 50 per cent pay rise and a three-year extension to his deal, keeping him at the club until 2018 on around £75,000 a week.
Martinez had vowed to look at Baines' contract situation as soon as the transfer window was out of the way, and has explained the time is now right to thrash out an agreement.
"While the window is open, I think it's the wrong time to speak about those things and so we hadn't discussed it," said the Spaniard.
"But now the window is closed, we are going to look into all of the players in the squad and see where their contracts are up to.
"Then, individually, we will look to address that. It would just have created more instability if we had done that while the window was open."
Everton have been impressed with Baines' behaviour.
While Marouane Fellaini eventually submitted a transfer request to force through a move to United, his team-mate refused to take that course of action even though he was keen, in a World Cup year, to play at the highest level of club football.
* EVERTON new boy James McCarthy sacrificed £500,000 to make his dream move from Wigan, writes Alan Nixon.
The Republic of Ireland midfielder, 22, was due a slice of the £13million fee under his Latics deal. But McCarthy waived the pay-out to ease the sale through as the transfer deadline loomed.
The defender had made clear he would like the chance of Champions League football, after the Old Trafford club made a concerted effort to land him before the transfer window slammed shut.
But local lad Baines - who watched the Blues from the Goodison terraces when he was a teenager - refused to hand in a transfer request.
He felt it would show a lack of respect to the club and their supporters.
Instead, he patiently waited for the situation to be resolved without any signs of frustration or lack of commitment.
Now, Everton want to reward that loyalty by giving him a new long-term deal.
Baines still has two years left to run on a contract signed in 2010 which pays him around £50,000 a week.
But new Everton boss Roberto Martinez has indicated he wants to make the defender one of the highest-paid players at the club, given his importance to the team.
The England star can expect a minimum 50 per cent pay rise and a three-year extension to his deal, keeping him at the club until 2018 on around £75,000 a week.
Martinez had vowed to look at Baines' contract situation as soon as the transfer window was out of the way, and has explained the time is now right to thrash out an agreement.
"While the window is open, I think it's the wrong time to speak about those things and so we hadn't discussed it," said the Spaniard.
"But now the window is closed, we are going to look into all of the players in the squad and see where their contracts are up to.
"Then, individually, we will look to address that. It would just have created more instability if we had done that while the window was open."
Everton have been impressed with Baines' behaviour.
While Marouane Fellaini eventually submitted a transfer request to force through a move to United, his team-mate refused to take that course of action even though he was keen, in a World Cup year, to play at the highest level of club football.
* EVERTON new boy James McCarthy sacrificed £500,000 to make his dream move from Wigan, writes Alan Nixon.
The Republic of Ireland midfielder, 22, was due a slice of the £13million fee under his Latics deal. But McCarthy waived the pay-out to ease the sale through as the transfer deadline loomed.
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