Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’LL TIE UP JONNY
Boss Pardew: I won’t hesitate to play Evans in cup even though we need the cash from his move
ALAN PARDEW insists he is ready to cup-tie in-demand West Brom skipper Jonny Evans this weekend.
The Premier League strugglers hope to sell centre-back and skipper Evans this month to free up funds for a new striker.
Arsenal like Northern Ireland international Evans, 30, while Manchester City tried to buy him last summer after he rejected a new Baggies deal.
Evans missed Albion’s third round tie at Exeter with a knock but ahead of today’s trip to Liverpool, Baggies boss Pardew said: “I’m not afraid to cup-tie him this weekend.
“I don’t want to disrupt my back five too much as they’ve performed so well.
“Jonny is still at the football club, we still haven’t had a bid put to us that’s anywhere near acceptable. Therefore he still remains a West Brom player.
“Jonny Evans is a target for other clubs. We might sell if the price is right. That’s that deal.
“But we’ve made clear over the last couple of weeks that we’d be really foolish if we haven’t got a gameplan in place to counter losing Jonny Evans or not losing Jonny Evans.”
Baggies boss Pardew aims to reinvest cash from any Evans deal on a new striker like Watford’s Troy Deeney.
Pardew added: “It needs to be a player of substance, a recognised talent that has achieved certain criteria that is going to affect the dressing room.
“I am looking for the players to look at somebody in that dressing room and go: ‘OK, its game on now and I best get my act in order’.
“Not that they are not trying or I feel there is a problem in the dressing room, I just think for any player that is a natural reaction when you get a player of substance in”