Albion star Roman Bednar says he is still hopeful he can land a new contract for the Baggies’ return to the Premier League.
The club have a binding deal with Hearts to sign the Czech striker for £2.5m and Bednar signed a pre-contract agreement last summer.
But the 25-year-old is looking to improve the terms of his Hawthorns deal and he says his agent is still planning talks with Albion, despite manager Tony Mowbray’s statement last week that the time is not right for re-negotiating.
Albion plan to trigger the deals with Hearts and Bednar before the May 31 deadline that was written into the contracts, but the player says he is still not entirely sure he will be an Albion player next season.
“I hope so but I still don’t know yet,” he said. “Everybody hopes so and I hope we can agree everything.
“The manager says he wants me, so now there is just some work for my agent and the lawyers here to make sure both sides are happy.
“I hope it will be sorted out but that’s all I can say.”
Meanwhile, Bednar has revealed he has played in pain for the final three months of the season because of a hernia that will be operated on in the next fortnight.
But he is confident of being fit for the start of pre-season training.
“I’ve had it for three months. I felt it a lot and I spoke to the gaffer, who said he didn’t want me to be out for the most important games at the end.
“But I promised him I wouldn’t make excuses and I wanted to play.
“For three months I couldn’t do weights or anything like that because I would feel pain afterwards.
“But I just carried on for three months. That’s maybe why I didn’t play and score as much.
“I didn’t have injections. I just carried on.
“I am going to Scotland to play in a testimonial, then I am going to Prague for an operation and then I will have two weeks’ holiday for a few beers and after that I will do some training and make sure I am not to far off when we start pre-season.
“We are back here at the start of July.”
24 Comments
If a pre-contract agreement has been set-up, then I don’t agree that Roman should be trying to hold West Brom to ransom, but I’m sure Tony Mowbray will deal with this in the best way.
Roman you’ve done a good job for us, I would like you to stay, but don’t be greedy
I don’t know where all this unrest with Bednar is coming from.
We took him, whilst he was injured, from a team where he was out the picture and where he was unhappy, and put him in a team of good footballers with a gaffer who rates him highly.
We gave him a platform to play good football, and now we can offer him prem football next season.
He is a very good player - but he is part of a great team.
The deal he was offered when he joined must have been good enough then - if he is the type of person to back out of that now then i don’t really care if he stays or not - I trust TM’s judgment on this.
We don’t need anymore Big Time Charlies at this club - we got rid of all those last season.
IMO he needs to be very careful with his statements or he may find himself back in Scotland - or worse - back in the championship.
1.Agreed
Is this why he fell out with his last club? Sounds to me like he should be looking to change advisors, we all want what we can get, but he risks gaining a reputation for causing trouble.
The fact he played through the pain barrier to help us get promoted suggests hes not the person driving this situation, another example possibly of advisors muddying clear waters??
Tony and Happy, I agree, but I don’t see anything in his quotes that mentions pay rises.
Other publications have reported the same story today without the same spin on it, and actually quote Bednar on saying he’s looking forward to playing a few more dressing room pranks in pre-season.
TO RIGHT,IVE A FEELING HE MIGHT STRUGGLE IN THE PREM ANYWAY,
Tony
I personally, am always sceptical about comments
attributed to players,
journalistic licence, misquotes, call it what you will.
If, however these comments are borne out of truth, then i`m afraid the blight of our football rears it`s very ugly head again…….
Agents,
i abhor the use of the word scum to describe an individual, but collectively agents are the scum of the earth, and are instrumental in destroying any sort of parity that still remains.
HB said,
> I don’t know where all this unrest with Bednar is coming from.
It’s coming from the media.
For digestion, it just requires a little salt.
On past performance, I feel confident that our Chairman has the ability to resolve.
More rubbish from the Express & Dingle.
Roman Bednar is an Albion player, he WILL sign permanently in the summer, as will Luke Moore and, hopefully, Michal Danek and Do-Heon Kim will also join.
Trust me.
Well HB I agree with you. Phillips Bednar & Gera seem to be waiting till the last min to sign there contracts. I think they are waiting to see if bigger clubs come in for them? Phillips and Bednar can go and i wish them well for whoever they play for. Phillips has been class all season but the last few games he played were very poor. Same with Bednar.
Now I think Miller will do well in the premiership Moore? Think we need to buy a top striker for about 8 or 9 million Crouch Nugent Lita Eto lol. Im happy with the midfield. Spend a few million on the def and we should finnish top half.
Boing Boing
WBAforever
Agents are and will always be a major thorn in football and will continue to make money in football more important than football itself, not until the governing bodies put an hardline on anything will this change, and I for one cannot see anything changing drastically because the more money floating around football in general the more money that inevitably ends up in these governing bodies hands. All circles at the end of the day and it is the paying fans who eventually pay for all of this. It won’t change.
He’s not good enough for the Prem anyway, he’s far too slow. While he and Kev have done fantastic jobs for us this season I wouldn’t be too upset if they both left, provided we get quality replacements
RB, I do agree that we will need to spend, though Crouch may not fitting TM’s style?
Crouch is big, he’s not that good in the air for his size, and I feel a little slow. For sure, Brunt can whip in a great cross, though TM needs someone to impose himself on the end of those.
To me, that’s not Crouch.
Tony seems to prefer ball to feet, on the deck, and though we were good against Pompey, it was clear that we were a little sluggish up-front for Premier teams.
Though I have no suggestions, if he has to cut a big Czech (sorry :} for a striker, I’d expect pace would be a key criteria
It all might be paper talk and speculation, who knows. But if it is Bednar, he’s only out for himself, which you can’t blame him for I suppose. However, he signed a pre-contract and was happy with it them or he wouldnt have come to the Albion. Get to the premiership and lo and behold he wants more money. If it’s not him stirring things up, it must be his agent. Agents ruin things for the fans, and are only after one thing for themselves, money. Us the fans pay good money to see football, but with everything going up at moment, petrol etc, it does affect our pockets.
We pay to see football as its our choice, but players should be grateful the fans turn up.
What about F Campbell from Man Utd on lone at Hull very fast’ young’ eye for goal. Would only pay 3 million for him but if Bednar is worth 2.5m try a bid for him at the same price you never no.
lets all be honest here folks bednar IS NOT a premiership striker like other posters have said he is to slow i think the gaffer would like him as a squad player though but i think 2.5mil for him could be better spent elsewhere on another striker, to stay up we are going to need goals and although we have scored plenty this season things will be so so different in the premiership, super kev isnt going to be playing week in week out at this level, also miller is to one footed moore is unproven yet i reckon we need to get 2 proven defenders 1 decent midfielder (if gera stays) and 2 fowards however i wouldnt go for nugent again he is to slow, crouch wouldnt come
be interesting to see whos linked over the next few weeks
boing boing
Totally agree with TonyWBA on Bednar —but would add that he doesn’t seem to be a prem striker to me. I wonder if super Kev’s dip in form is because he didn’t feel secure for the last month and I think we should sign him and Gera. A while back I heard a rumour we might be buying Harewood—not a bad shout and I wonder whether Spurs might lend us Darren Bent for the season ( they couldn’t sell him cause they would look like idiots since they would not get even half of what they paid)However he scored a lot of Prem goals for Charlton and I think he would do a great job for us
All this criticism of Bednar? How do we know it isn’t Mr Peace who’s playing silly beggers? Oh no…silly me…he’s never done that before!!
Here we are again, apportioning blame to player, JP and the club mower. Gentlemen and Paula, we have a brilliant manager, a super Chairman who gets cash for our cast-offs, a first class coaching and scouting staff and we’ve just won our first Champion’s Pot for yonks longer than I’ve been alive! It’s not going to be an easy ride next season, some will be found wanting. Let it NOT be US !
Well said Cyril. As I’ve pointed out previously, we don’t know who has said what in these situations. Stories about contented clubs don’t sell newspapers so journo’s stir the mud. Baggies fans, don’t fall for it. Don’t start attacking the chairman and the players on here. There are plenty of people on this paper happy to do that.
PS. Ain’t it wonderful. As I write this the championship ‘winners’ Stoke City have just featured again on the BBC Midlands News. If only we’d have achieved anything this season. Oh well there’s always next year
Calm down kiddies,
Rule No.1:
when reading press reports always read what the player actually said in a literal sense (the part between the quotation marks) totally ignore the rest no matter what angle they’re trying to put on it!
Papers will often run (non)stories using mis-leading shock tactic banner headlines trying to spin what has actully been said by using quotes in a different twist. A common trick to encourage a particular kind of slant on a story is to use a picture of player/manager when bawling during a match (with pointing finger angryly for an even better effect) to empasise anger and not use a picture of them smiling (like when scoring a goal) - get wise to their tactics!
He will be playing in the Premier league for the Albion next season. Best bang some more goals in and then approach and ask for a better deal. He agreed to play for us for so much cash per week, etc. So prove yourself in the Premier and ask for more cash etc after, not just expect more because the team got promotion ? There should be a win bonus anyway, so why spoil it and look greedy ? It maybe spin by the media, the Hotton Courier back the Wolves so it is possibly from them ?
People, we do not know how he would do in the Prem it is only speculation, yes he lacks killer pace, but he is big and strong and not many centre backs would like to play against him. He works hard and allows his strike partner to gain space to score goals. Lets wait and see shall we??
Why is it when a player gets a bit of success he wants more money,bednar should be grateful he was rescued from a scottish reserve team and no will play in the premiership