West Brom braced for new interest in their stars
West Brom boss Steve Clarke today admitted the club are braced for summer interest in their players – and he has been travelling Europe scouting potential replacements.
The Baggies head coach warned of a potential summer of change at the Hawthorns as the club prepare for interest in their key performers.
Jonas Olsson, Youssouf Mulumbu, Claudio Yacob and Shane Long could be among the high-profile targets, while Peter Odemwingie seems certain to leave.
Jerome Thomas and Mark-Antoine Fortune are out of contract and Romelu Lukaku's season-long loan from Chelsea ends in the summer.
And Clarke admitted: "The club always tend to have a number of players who are on short-term or loan contracts, and at the end of the season there is a possibility there will be three, four, five or six changes.
"We've had a really good season and maybe some other, bigger clubs will show an interest in some of the players we've got.
"Our job is to make sure that we have a number of targets ready to come in as and when we need to chase those targets."
West Brom adopted a firm 'not for sale' stance over their prize assets in the January transfer window with youngsters Chris Wood and Yassine El Ghanassy the only departures.
Clarke said: "I would like to be able to take that same stance but the summer window is slightly different to the January window.
"It's a little bit longer, there's a little bit more time for us to have targets to go for and for other clubs to come in and try to take some of ours."
West Brom return to action against Sunderland tomorrow 12 days after their 2-0 win against Liverpool, and Clarke revealed he has spend some of the extended break on scouting missions.
"I went to another European country and watched a couple of matches," he said.
"I went to broaden my knowledge of the players that are available and are possible targets for next season.
"Myself and my coaching staff have been out across Europe over the last three or four weeks looking at potential targets for next season.
"I'm not going to give too much away but we saw some good games and a lot of good players."
Clarke today said he had no new injury problems for tomorrow, with just long-term absentees Zoltan Gera and George Thorne and the suspended Goran Popov missing.
