New West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke is hoping to keep hold of Jonas Olsson after the defender was targeted by West Ham United.
West Brom under no pressure to sell West Ham target
New West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke is hoping to keep hold of Jonas Olsson after the defender was targeted by West Ham United.
Olsson only has one year remaining on his contract at The Hawthorns and the Sweden international will not make a decision on his future until after Euro 2012.
The centre-half is wanted by promoted West Ham, and has also been linked with a string of clubs, but Clarke is keen to hang on to the 28-year-old.
"Yes," said Clarke when asked at his unveiling if he wanted to keep Olsson. "Ideally for me I want to keep all the contracted players and I'd like to bring in another two or three players that can help me.
"Jonas is a key player for the team and the club, and I will do what I can to keep him here."
Important
The Baggies' sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth also insisted that there is no pressure to sell Olsson, who joined the club from NEC Nijmegen four years ago.
Ashworth said: "He is one of our most important players and we would like to keep him like we did last year with Youssouf Mulumbu and Peter Odemwingie last year.
"We're trying to build a squad not sell our best players.
"There wasn't a huge outlay on the transfer so we don't need to make a huge amount of money back if he decided to run the contract down.
"We would have to weigh it up and consider whether there is a transfer offer that meets the value of either getting a replacement or losing Jonas for the season."
