Everton FC News: Heitinga insists his future lies with Everton

May 18 2011 Chester Chronicle, Liverpool Echo

Everton FC News: JOHNNY HEITINGA insists that he does not want to be part of any transfer speculation at Everton this summer.

The Dutch defender has been at the heart of speculative stories ever since he arrived at Goodison from Atletico Madrid in 2009 – one of which he even appeared to actively encourage!

There is little the World Cup finalist could do about stories linking him to Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, but on apparent interest from Manchester City he told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: “City have ambitions and I am always looking to move to a bigger club.”

But in an interview yesterday Heitinga spoke of his connection with Merseyside and how he he was already preparing for the 2011/12 campaign as an Everton player.

“I feel good over here,” he declared. “I have another three years on my contract, the fans are good with me, the manager’s good with me, the play is good and I’m happy here at Everton.

“I’m looking forward to next season and hopefully we can get back into Europe.

“I miss playing in Europe because that’s the highest level you can play in as a player but hopefully we can reach that with Everton next season.”

Heitinga will be available again for the Blues final match of the season against Chelsea on Sunday, but it was confirmed yesterday that Diniyar Bilyaletdinov will miss that match and the first two league matches of next season after the club's appeal against his red card at West Brom on Saturday was dismissed.

The 26-year-old was shown a red card for what referee Anthony Taylor deemed to be a high challenge on Baggies midfielder James Morrison after 77 minutes at the Hawthorns.

A statement released by the Blues yesterday read: “Everton were informed on Tuesday afternoon that referee Anthony Taylor's decision would be upheld, thus ruling Bilyaletdinov out of Sunday's Premier League finale against Chelsea, as well as the first two games of next season.

“The appeal was dismissed in spite of Morrison providing a statement in support of the Everton player.”