Roberto Martinez has come out and expressly stated that he expects Leighton Baines to remain at Everton for the forthcoming season.
Martinez stated that a club had a bid rejected earlier in the summer and he believes that to be a final offer, one which was well below our valuation of Baines. That club is reportedly Manchester United under new manager David Moyes.
There´s often a lot of posturing going on at this time of the year between clubs in the media but for a lot of blues this would be the news they wanted as out of the variety of good players we have: Baines is probably the most talented of them and is also a local lad. He gets it. Throw in being a thoroughly nice lad to boot and with boss taste in music and he´s an Everton icon for the modern masses.
Maybe winning the coveted title of “the naughtiest left back in town lad” from our army of lids was the tipping point. The lids don´t put themselves out for many.
Obviously things could change but it would be a big boost to keep Baines at Goodison and go into the season with two of the best full backs in the league. We´d have more width than a jilted childhood sweetheart on Facebook.
Three weeks to close.