West Brom want new Evans contract

Cape Town - West Bromwich Albion are hoping to agree a new contract for captain Jonny Evans after January interest from both Manchester City and Arsenal.

Evans was a target for City both last summer and in the transfer window, while Arsenal saw a deadline day bid of around £12 million rejected by the Baggies.

The former Manchester United centre-half is approaching the final 18 months of his contract at the Hawthorns and there is a clause in his contract that will allow him to leave for just £3m, if West Brom are relegated.

But despite seeing previous attempts to persuade Evans to pen a new deal fail, West Brom boss Alan Pardew is eager to revive contract talks now that the window is shut.

“He has handled the situation particularly well,” said Pardew of the interest in Evans.

“I spoke with him just to round it off because I’ve tried to look him in the eye and tell him the truth from day one.

“I told him what happened on deadline day, he understood that, and now in my view we need to sit Jonny down and see if we can get a contract that works for him going forward. If not, in the summer again we’re going to have this situation.

“That’s something that I will speak to the board about in the next couple of weeks. He can only be open to those discussions if the figures are right because the market dictates and we have to understand what those figures would have been elsewhere. Whether we can reach those figures I don’t know.

“He’s clinical in terms of his thinking. Game time is game time and when he comes off the pitch of course he’s effectively CEO of his own company. He decides his own fate. It doesn’t matter about the team around him, his agent or anyone else.

“They can say what they like and have an opinion. At the end of the day Jonny Evans says, “This is what I want to do” and I would like him to sign a new contract at this club. But Jonny is the man who makes that decision.”