Alan Pardew willing to sell Jonny Evans to buy a striker if woes in front of goal continue

The Baggies have only scored two goals in Pardew’s first six games in charge, and the new head coach is acutely aware that he cannot win games without finding the net.

Evans was in demand in summer when tomorrow’s opponents Arsenal made a £25million deadline day bid after Albion rejected earlier offers from both Leicester City (£23m)and Manchester City (£18m).

The Baggies are yet to be approached about Evans ahead of the January window opening next week, but they are bracing themselves for further interest.

And Pardew admitted he may need to free up funds to bolster his goal-shy strike force.

“I have to keep one eye all throughout January in the goals for column, because I have got to get that to change somehow,” he said. “I have got to get goals on the board, or you cant win games otherwise.

“I am conscious that if there are no funds available I might have to move something around.

“I have always thought that you would be slightly naive in your job if you didn’t try to cover all the bases.

“So there is a scenario that Jonny Evans might move. For sure I have looked at that. There is a scenario that Jonny doesn’t move. There is a scenario someone else moves.

“What happens if we get another injury to let’s say Chris Brunt, then I have him, Morrison and Chadli missing, how is that going to work? So I have to cover all those.

“And with (technical director) Nicky Hammond, someone I know well and who is brilliant at his job, I am pretty sure we have it all covered. If we do some business in January we will be doing it for the right reasons.”

Southampton are selling Virgil Van Dijk to Liverpool for £75m this window, and Pardew was asked how much that meant Evans was worth.

“That is a difficult one,” he said. “It sometimes come down to contract length, the safeguards you have on someone’s contract etc.

“But we’ve seen astonishing figures for defenders all through since the start of the season, really. “If I look at defenders and compare Jonny with central defenders in the Premier League, he is right up there.”

Liverpool and Southampton have already agreed their deal for Van Dijk, but Pardew said there had been no such

“We are not getting any noise to the technical director or myself directly,” he said. “There is noise in the media.

“Sometimes the noise in the media has some clarity to it, we all know that. Sometimes it doesn’t.

“We will be the last to know, probably. I’m pretty confident he will play this game and the West Ham game. After that, let’s wait and see.”

Albion’s wage bill is at its limit so Pardew needs to sell to buy in January.

The Baggies are picking up all of Grzegorz Krychowiak’s £108,000-a-week salary for parent club Paris Saint-Germain.

They have agreed to a season-long loan for the Polish midfielder, and he is unlikely to be recalled by the French club.

But if another club was willing to take him on loan until the end of the season and pick up all, or a large portion of, Krychowiak’s wages, that could free up some funds.

When Pardew was asked if he wanted to off-load Krychowiak, he said: “I haven’t made a decision on that, so that is the only thing I can say to that.”