West Brom boss, Tony Pulis, claims he has “not even thought” about the possibility in-form striker Brown Ideye could still leave the club this summer.
Ideye, the Baggies’ £10 million record signing, was reportedly close to leaving The Hawthorns on transfer deadline earlier this month after a difficult start at the club.
The Nigeria international, who joined Albion from Dynamo Kiev last summer, struggled in the early months of the season and did not score a Barclays Premier League goal until Boxing Day.
There did not look like being many more as his struggles continued throughout January and it was claimed the club were prepared to sell him at a loss to Qatari side, Al Gharafa.
That move did not materialise and Ideye, 26, has since found a new lease of life under new head coach Pulis, scoring four times in his last three appearances.
Pulis said: “He has certainly looked a player the last couple of weeks. It is just confidence. He has scored a couple of goals and the weight of pressure and expectation on his shoulders, with the fee and coming into a new country, a new football club – it has taken all that weight off him. We’re delighted.”
Asked if there was still a chance Ideye could move on in the summer, Pulis said: “I’ve not even thought it. The only thing on my mind is going up to the Stadium of Light on Saturday and trying to get a result up there, which we know will be very difficult.”
West Brom have enjoyed a resurgence since Pulis took charge early in the new year, winning five of eight games and losing just one.
That sequence has kept them out of trouble at the bottom of the Premier League – they sit 14th, four points above the bottom three – and carried them into the FA Cup quarter-finals.
They will look to maintain the momentum as they travel to out-of-form Sunderland, who are just two points below them, on Saturday.
