Steven Pienaar's likely Everton exit

Sylvain Distin admits sadness over Steven Pienaar's likely Everton exit

The Everton defender Sylvain Distin is saddened by the apparent imminent departure of Steven Pienaar and frustrated by constant speculation linking others with the Goodison Park exit.

Pienaar, who is out of contract at the end of the season, looks set to leave during the current transfer window after the club accepted an offer from Chelsea. The South Africa international has been one of Everton's driving forces over the past two seasons and Distin does not want him to go, particularly at a time when the manager, David Moyes, would like to recruit.

"It's disappointing to lose Steven," Distin said. "You don't want to lose one of your best players but that's football. Everywhere I've been it's been the same, there's not much we can do – just stay focused and carry on doing what we're doing. I don't think it's a done deal yet but it's disappointing."

Tottenham, one of the other clubs to have shown interest in signing Pienaar, have also been linked with a move for Phil Neville, although that was rubbished by Moyes. Distin added: "It's not a good feeling when you hope for reinforcements and instead it's just talk about your best players going. All we can do is wait and see what happens in the transfer window but I would rather keep those two players that's for sure."

Moyes's hopes of bringing in more players may actually depend on whether he can raise any money through sales. The Scot was only able to bring in three players on free transfers last summer and he has said he will have to concentrate on the loan market this January.

An undisclosed loan fee has been received from Leicester for Ayegbeni Yakubu and Pienaar's departure, if it can be concluded quickly, may give Moyes some leverage to bring in another striker. But Distin believes it is getting tougher to compete with other clubs for new signings.

The 33-year-old said: "It's obvious that the league is getting tougher and every team can get big players. Teams like Sunderland and Birmingham are buying players that three years ago they'd never have dreamed of signing. It's not a secret that we would like to have more players but there's nothing we can do about it. We have to stay focused and we've got enough quality already to play good games."

Distin was on the scoresheet in yesterday's entertaining 2-2 draw at Liverpool in the Merseyside derby. Both sides will take encouragement from their performances but will not be happy to be just four points above the relegation zone.

"Four points against Liverpool is okay but everyone is quite disappointed because we felt like we could've won that game," Distin said. "But in the cold light of day, three points at home and one away is good overall.

"We could have easily been two or three nil down at half-time so overall it was a fair result. It could end up a race with Liverpool to get up the table now but we're having a positive month with some good results and if we carry on we can end up towards the right end of the table."