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Moyes resigned to losing Pienaar on a free

Steven Pienaar is expected to leave Goodison Park in the summer © Getty Images

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David Moyes admits he is "resigned" to losing Steven Pienaar on a free transfer at the end of the season, but Everton do hope to convince Phil Jagielka to commit his future to the club.

Pienaar's contract expires in the summer and the South Africa midfielder opted against signing a new deal earlier this year, placing his future at Goodison in real doubt.

Though Everton have not withdrawn that offer, and are very keen to keep the player, Moyes says it is unlikely that Pienaar will be a Toffees player at the start of the 2011-12 season.

"I have probably resigned myself to him leaving but I knew that when there was no contract signed in the summer," Moyes said. "We brought him in for £2.5 million and you tend to find people in the last year of their contract have to play out of their skin to impress suitors.

"If it is the money they want they are going to have to play well to show they are worth the wages they want. I will try and use it to my advantage.

"There is a really good contract offer there for him but, to be fair, he has stood up for us this season and has done some really good things on the pitch."

Everton are more confident of tying Jagielka to a new deal. The defender, who was the subject of an £8 million offer from Arsenal during the summer, is contracted to the club until 2014 but Moyes hopes to extend that arrangement.

"Yes we had a bid but it wasn't a lot of money for Phil Jagielka," Moyes said of Arsenal's interest. "I had a word with him the day before we went to Australia on pre-season tour. I said they would have needed to offer an awful lot more money and it wasn't at that point.

"He got on with the job no problem and there will be a new contract offer for Phil Jagielka maybe next year. I have tried to keep the good players here and I was really keen to do that. It was great that he accepted that."

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