Pienaar relishing Sunderland challenge
Steven Pienaar is excited by the challenge of playing the role of senior player at Sunderland this season.
|||Steven Pienaar is excited by the challenge of playing the role of senior player at Sunderland this season.
The 34-year-old midfielder recently joined the English Premiership club to reunite with his former Everton coach David Moyes.
“Coming into a team with so many young players around you, you’re thinking 'oh wow'. But it’s good for me because I can always pass on my experience on to the young boys,” the former Bafana Bafana captain said during an interview with the club’s television station this week.
Aware of how hard it will be for youngsters to cope with the demands of top flight football, especially when things are not going well as they are for Sunderland who are winless from their two league matches, the Westbury-born player nicknamed Schillo knows exactly what his and the other senior players’ role will be.
“Given the circumstances we’re in (I’ll) tell them to be calm, don’t lose your head and that as long as you put in a good shift, hard work will always pay off.”
Pienaar believes it is fantastic for the youngsters in the squad that Sunderland are coached by Moyes.
“(There’s) a lot of very young players that he’s given an opportunity to play and Jack (Rodwell) is one of them and he knows all about it. The manager believes in young players and he’s played them, Joe (Asoro) came on over the weekend and it’s a good opportunity for them. They just have to believe and know that a win is not far away.”
Belief is something Pienaar never lost, not even when he struggled to make the team at Everton where he saw very little action in the past two seasons.
When his contract ended and the Toffees decided not to renew, it appeared the man who shone for Ajax Cape Town and their mother team in Amsterdam before his brilliant time at Everton would finish his career in the local Premiership.
Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza expressed keenness to have the midfielder who has also turned out for Tottenham Hotspur in his team while there were also murmurings of Mamelodi Sundowns being interested.
In the end Pienaar returned to England to a team finding it difficult to compete financially with their Premier League rivals in the transfer window as Moyes aims to bolster his fragile squad.
Pienaar joined along with Papy Djilobodji, Paddy McNair, Donald Love and Adnan Januzaj. Atletico Madrid defender Javier Manquillo, Barnsley centreback Alfie Mawson and midfielder Yann M’Vila, who spent the last season on loan with Sunderland, have all been linked by British media over a potential move to the Stadium of Light.
Said Pienaar of his move: “I was home keeping fit; training with the guys back in Amsterdam and my agent phoned me and said do you fancy going to train for a few weeks with Sunderland? and I said 'why not'. I was out of contract and for me to train with a club in a professional environment was good.”
He was, however, surprised at how promptly the deal was sealed and for him to be in the thick of the action as he came on during the weekend’s loss to newly-promoted Middlesbrough.
“I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly but I’ve been working hard to get fit and to get up to speed with the guys. For me to come on in a derby game, it was good to get the feel of the club, the supporters and the stadium. I enjoyed it and I was happy although it was not a good result.”
Sunderland are away to Southampton on Saturday looking for their first league win of the season. - The Star