At the end of October, three days after a match-winning performance at Burnley, Everton boss Roberto Martinez said that “it is natural Samuel Eto’o will get another year.”

Barely 10 weeks later, the Blues boss is battling to keep the striking legend at Goodison until the January transfer window closes.

Sampdoria and Inter Milan want to bring the Cameroon striker closer to his Milan based family, and Roberto Martinez has a battle to convince the 33-year-old to stay put.

“We are just taking a couple of weeks to decide what is the next step,” said Martinez.

“I don’t rule anything out at the moment. It could well be Samuel stays with us – we will see what is the best for the club and for Samuel as well.” Unfortunately the two aims may not be mutually compatible.

Unlike Eto’o’s final season at Chelsea, he has not fallen out with the manager.

Both Martinez and Eto’o enjoy an open and cordial relationship.

But while Eto’o wants to see out the twilight years of his career playing as much football as he can, Everton have not been able to accommodate him as much as he would like.

The one-year contract Everton agreed with Eto’o had an option of a second year after 15 appearances. That was triggered when he completed the full 90 minutes at Manchester City in December.

But he has only started two matches since then and was an unused substitute when the champions came back to Goodison five weeks later.

In the nine games since the Etihad clash, when Eto’o was squeezed into an unfamiliar right midfield role, he has played just 239 minutes of football.

But Martinez remains keen to try and persuade Eto’o to stick around – not least because of the influence he has on the Academy players in the squad. “We have always had a very open relationship with Samuel,” he explained.

“Samuel arrived on a free transfer in the summer and has been a really, really positive figure around the squad and in our day to day work.

“I was watching the Under-21s this week against West Ham and I saw one player doing something that Samuel does on the pitch all the time and that is the effect he has had internally.

“Obviously he has also scored four goals and been a really important player in our squad.

“Obviously January is a period that was going to bring a question mark and that is something that doesn’t mean a decision one way or another.

“We have had a couple of enquiries and we’ll decide what’s best for Everton and for Samuel over the next couple of weeks with a lot of maturity and find out openly and honestly what’s the best solution for everyone.”

That may mean Eto’o sitting out his second successive match on Monday, when West Bromwich Albion visit Goodison in a match which has rapidly assumed must-win status.

Martinez would prefer Eto’o to be involved – but first wants to assess the player’s mindset, and would love the January transfer window to be closed for good to prevent players being unsettled mid-season in future.

Last year rumours surrounding Leighton Baines’ future unsettled one of the Blues key figures.

Martinez said: “Will Samuel be involved on Monday? It depends. I’ve always been against the window being open while there are official games.

Unfortunately it happens every single time and it’s something that I’d like to eradicate from football.

“Yes the window has to be there because it’s part of the game that the fans enjoy, but you can understand that a footballer is a human being and needs to think about the next possibility, the next step, that’s in their mind.

“I need to assess where Samuel is mentally and what’s his mindset.

“Obviously if he’s in a good mindset he will be involved. He is a player who can help us, but at the same time until the window closes we are not going to make a final decision.

“It depends very much on how the player feels and how the squad is looking before the game.

“But I haven’t looked into replacing him. Arouna Kone is fully fit now and is a new player for us from where we were at the start of the season.

“We have put a lot of effort and a lot of work into putting together a squad which I felt was strong fro the duration of the season and that hasn’t changed.

“We are not relying on January to achieve our aims.

“It will depend more if we can get players back from injury quickly enough rather than keeping hold of Samuel.”