West Brom putting final touches to Rekeem Harper's new contract

Harper is currently out of contract in the summer, but the 18-year-old has played the last three games for the Baggies.

After impressing against Wigan and Norwich, he was named man of the match on Monday night in the 2-0 win away at Bolton by the television broadcasters.

There were concerns he could be pinched at the end of the season on a free transfer, although any club who did that would have had to pay Albion compensation because of his age.

However, Moore says Harper is close to signing a new contract with the Baggies, securing his future at The Hawthorns for years to come.

"We’re nearly ready to re-sign Rekeem Harper," confirmed Moore. "He’s our player, he’s local and he belongs to us. He’s developed through our academy and as a head coach I know Rekeem really well and so many of my staff.

"We’ve worked with him since he was U12. It’s a proud moment for me, the coaching staff and the academy when you see two young players like Sam (Field) and Rekeem side by side (at Bolton) along with an experienced Gareth Barry.

"The academy would have sent an email round to say the hard work pays off.

"Rekeem is a player we want to stay. We’re in the final parts of him re-signing which will be good news for everybody. When it’s done we’ll announce it."

In the past, Albion have had some of their best youngsters like Izzy Brown and Yan Dhanda pinched by bigger clubs, but Moore has no intention of letting Harper leave.

"It’s important to secure Rekeem," added Moore. "We don’t do all our hard work and then let the youngsters go out of the building, it would be the wrong thing to do.

"There’s a different regime here at the club, the culture’s different. I’ll keep banging the drum about unity at the club. Unity at the club is keeping all your best players.

"Harper is a good player for West Brom, he’s our player and we want him to sign here.

"We’ve had good progressive talks with Rekeem’s advisors and I'm pleased to say we’re all on the same page. We just want to get the boy signed up. Get it done and dusted and out of the way.

"You’ve seen his attributes, but there’s a lot more to come from Rekeem. He was a striker in our academy and we converted him over the last three years into a midfield player.

"That’s not long really in terms of the area of the pitch he’s got to play, There’s different responsibilities.

"When you’re a striker you have you back to play, holding the ball up and getting on to things. When you’re a midfielder you’re more in the centre with more bodies around you. You have to think quicker and move the ball quicker and Rekeem has displayed all those attributes.

"For Rekeem to be playing alongside players with the wealth of experience as (Gareth) Barry, (Chris) Brunt and (James) Morrison, he can only learn from them.

"He’s shown maturity and that’s why we want to get him settled down and signed. They’re the future of the club, these players.

"We’ve got a good crop of youngsters who we think are excellent and can perform for the club. If we manage them right the future of this club looks bright because we’ve got some talented youngsters here.

"We’ve got some excellent youngsters just behind them. Developed right you could see an array of talent and exciting times for this football club."

Harper has impressed Albion fans with his dynamic box-to-box presence in midfield, and is expected to keep his place in the side for this weekend's FA Cup fourth round match at Brighton.

Moore is excited about the potential for his development at The Hawthorns.

"Rekeem has to keep his head down because there’s a lot of parts to his game he’s still developing and learning," said the Baggies boss.

"There’s also some wonderful parts to his game that he’s shown. He excites the fans, he’s young, energetic, fresh and is enjoying his game.

"He’s fearless and has the components to be a really good player. He needs to be develop along the way. Behind the scenes, we’ve kept these youngsters in and around us.

"They’ve not gone anywhere and have trained with us every day. They get the strength and the speed by training with the pros every day.

"They get the understanding, the angle of passes, the runs, the details off the ball and the importance of playing front-line football. Slowly but surely we’ve integrated them.

"You’ve seen this season from (Kyle) Edwards, (Jonathan) Leko, Field and Harper to name but a few, they’ve stepped in to perform at a mature level. It’s credit to them that when the opportunity has come, they’ve not looked out of place."