Boss hails Pienaar move

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright believes the summer move to land Steven Pienaar from Spurs is the catalyst for the club's turnaround.

The South African midfielder finally completed his return to Goodison Park from Spurs, after long and protracted negotiations between the two clubs, before a £4.5m transfer was eventually agreed. Kenwright believes his arrival, as well as the deals for Scotland international Steven Naismith and the £5.3m capture of Belgian forward Kevin Mirallas, has helped instill the confidence back into the club. He told the Daily Post: "Just because you finish one season playing fantastically doesn't always mean you can carry it through to the next season and you know, so many times we've thought we've just missed out and can't hold onto it. "But there has been an uplift in the spirit this summer. We knew how important Steven (Pienaar) was and that was not an easy negotiation to deal with. "Tottenham were very decent to deal with but it wasn't easy. It took a long, long time to sort that one out. Naismith was relatively quickly and then all of last week it was Olympiakos. "I think I'm a fan before I'm a chairman, before I'm the majority shareholder. I wanted Steven, and so did David Moyes, so we all felt as one on that."