Albion boss expects Mulumbu to stay
Wednesday 29th June 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Boss Roy Hodgson returns to the Hawthorns next week increasingly confident Youssouf Mulumbu will still be an Albion player next season.
Hodgson, preparing to welcome back his players on Monday to begin getting ready for the 2011-12 campaign, was braced for last season’s stand-out performers to figure in summer transfer speculation during his break.
But the Baggies boss has added his voice to the short shrift the club last week gave to reports from Italy that Fiorentina were negotiating Mulumbu’s departure from the Hawthorns.
Hodgson has been speaking to the Italian press, where the prospect of Mulumbu joining Fiorentina is stirring more interest than in England.
The Albion head coach said: “Youssouf has a long contract that has to be respected and he has given no indication that he plans to break that commitment.
“Talk of a transfer is just fantasy at the moment. It will be difficult for anyone to take him.
“Mulumbu will not go, at least not for another year.”
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