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Albion step up bid for duo
Friday 1st August 2008, 12:27PM BST.
Albion are plotting new bids for Abdoulaye Meite and Per Ciljan Skjelbred as they step up their hunt for new players.
The Baggies remain determined to land the duo, despite having bids turned down for both in the last 48 hours.
They are considering their next move, with increased offers likely for both Bolton defender Meite and Rosenberg playmaker Skjelbred.
Albion officials are refusing to give up on the their pursuit of Ivory Coast international Meite, despite having had a second bid of around £1.5m rejected by the Trotters.
They are now doubly keen to sign the 27-year-old after missing out on another central defender, Madjid Bougherra, to Charlton.
The Baggies still hope a compromise can be found, despite the stubbornness of former manager Gary Megson.
Megson, who is now in charge at the Reebok Stadium, has so far refused to budge on his £2m valuation of the 6ft 1in tall centre-back.
Albion chairman Jeremy Peace is reluctant to increase his offer too far above the £1.5m bid he has already made in conjunction with manager Tony Mowbray.
Hull are also continuing to monitor the Paris-born defender’s situation, although discussions with Albion are said to be more advanced.
Albion hope Meite’s well publicised fall-out with Megson – a spat that effectively spelled the end of his Bolton career – will eventually force the Trotters to lower their asking price in order to offload the player.
The Baggies also remain keen on 21-year-old Norway international midfielder Skjelbred, despite having an opening bid of approaching £2m turned down.
They could face intense competition for the attacking midfielder’s services, with their opening approach potentially triggering a series of responses.
Blackburn, Tottenham, Newcastle and Ajax are also interested.
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I think, well I hope Meite will be in soon enough.
I’ve said it countless times, we need a no nonsense central defender to get his head on balls into the box.
I don’t think we’ll get the Norwegian fella though, if he’s linked with Spurs, Newcastle etc he’ll go somewhere else…..unless he follows Zuiverloons’ lead and wants to prove himself playing actual football?!
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nice to know we’re moving straight on with other targets, players who hopefully won’t be wasting our time as much as Bougherra did, I hope he enjoys his time in the Scottish league, its a dead end.
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I think that meite will be a good signing and agree we need further deffensive cover but i also think that clem is as good as anyone we will bring in IMO. So he does deserve a start at the emirates. BOING BOING!!!
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You are always the fall back, ie better than nothing. Get over it.
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Can we stop talking about buying players, and actually start doing it. Only 2 weeks to go now!!
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how glad is everyone that we did not sign the charlton defender who conceded (i think) 5 goals against us. Don’t know why moggs is going for the bolton defender Abdoulaye Meite either as he seems to upset the apple cart. For a player not to come out against man utd at half time because of a slight knock makes you wonder about his commitment and desire. I would love to play against a team of that stature even with my leg half hanging off.
Hope we dont sign him. There must be better players out there, if not we will have to do the best we can with what we have got.
Either way I think this season will be a rollercoaster and will be exciting. Pure football fans will be sitting back and admiring what we are trying to do..
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karl bull
i see your point pal but you must remember how tough megson could be to work under from his time with us, we never know the true story behind the scenes so id take that ‘not coming out’ line with a pinch of salt.
if TM is going for him i place my full trust in him seeing something in that guy to succeed at WBA.
Cnt wait for the striker rumours to start….I’ll be regretting saying this when the carrots are dangled in the next couple of weeks however!
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I felt really gutted about BOUGHERRA not signing
for us ,but I just had this feeling that it would
not happen,due to the fact that he didnt sign
yesterday.
Even if we couldnt get any further signings in,
I still think our starting 11 is pretty exciting.
CARSON/HOEFKENS/CECH/CLEMENT/ROBINSON/
MORRISON/GREENING/KOREN/KIM/MILLER/BEDNAR.
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thanks for the reply boinbboing66 c ur point i hear sonko mentioned????. Def agree about strikers, not too sure our strikers will manage at least 10-15 goals. May need to look at midfield getting our goals. Saying that though reading surprised everyone with their forwards when they came up.
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8 – I think that Zuiverloon will come back & challenge for a starting place, seeing as the price we paid for him. There’s also a chance Cech could play in the midfield. Think we’ve deploy one up front more often as well.
Dorrans & Kim have both impressed in pre-seasons so they could be pushing for the 1st XI.
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I really hope we get Meite signed up as Bougherra going to Rangers really hit me hard. Lets get him signed up ASAP.
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What’s the point in keep messing about tabling bids?. Can’t we just negotiate with them and thrash something out?
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Good Defender as Nedball says he is a “no nonsense” defender would make a great signing! :) Get him before Hull do! i think the Bougherra situation was probably about money.
Any news on the takeover situation???
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13 – there’s been chuff all on the takeover has there? I’d have expected something more from the club than what we’ve had so far seeing as they’re the one’s who set the deadline for yesterday.
Who really cares though?
Decided to go to Swansea tomorrow now it’s not all ticket and Walsall on Tuesday….the Summer of DIY is done, it’s football time again! WOOHOO!!!
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I’m disgusted but not surprised that we’ve been trumped by Rangers for Bougherra. We’d agreed terms with Charlton – why didn’t we nail our man immediately? Rangers showed it can be done after they’d established the need following the Kaunas game.Just typical. The team is currently well under strength. Luke Moore let us down end of last season and hasn’t shown so far in the friendlies. £3 million? Don’t make me laugh. Miller is promising but so raw it’s untrue. Bednar, Slusarski, Beattie (!!) – can these really be the forwards to score our goals? Get real! We shouldn’t have let KP go until we had a real top-gun replacement. Now we are TWO top forwards short. Time Mowbray and JP pulled their %%£”* fingers out, stop talking about it, and just deliver the players we need – they’ve had long enough.And just two weeks to go. We’ll be playing a team of strangers IF we ever make any signings.
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looking forward to swansea tomorrow… think there is a park and ride bout 5mins away from liberty stadium, but the stadium is also next to an enterprise park (bit like coventry) so not sure if you can pay to park or buy something in the morrisson store… i have mine sorted, my aunt is personnel manager and i can park at morrisons for free!!!!!
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brunty needs 2 b in yhe startin line up his delivery in2 the box is world class
also according 2 sky sports news louis saha si available for a 6month loan
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I think meite wud be a great signing, at the end of the day we are not going to sign rio ferdinand or john terry, players like meite are our level of targets, there is a lad at chelsea michael Mancienne who would be a good loan target as can’t see chelsea selling one of there hot prospects, i guess tomo is targetting Skjelbred after not pulling off a deal for the young polish lad from groclin. Also Dan Sturridge on-loan or even dave nugent could be good additions to our striking department. Lets just hope we bring in some new faces soon & some our current players start doing the business i.e. luke moore, boing boing!
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What exactly has Bougherra gone for? How committed would he have been? When a player has the pen in his hand then offs somewhere else, he didn’t really want play for US, OUR TEAM. It wasn’t pure football that attracted him. What’s left? CASH! Pure and simple. Good riddance!
I don’t know whether Meite is a mighty signing, but anybody who’ll go 10 rounds with Meggo must have some spirit. Has anyone seen him play?
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I Agree we need 1 OR 2 strikers (proven) on loan if we have to. BOUGHERRA is a disgrase somes up the greed of some prem players.And lets get that defence sorted.
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Can’t believe we got promoted and then reduced our capacity for the boxes on Halfords Lane stand. How about building something decent for supporters club.
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test meggos metal sign him and let fa set fee,with skjelbred up the bid by 1/2.M. if they say no forget it then go for james beattie with a 5m.bid
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