West Brom lining up loan deal for Lukaku

Albion are poised to sign £18m striker Romelu Lukaku on a season-long loan from Chelsea.

The Baggies look set to win the race for the 19-year-old Belgium international and add their second new forward in a week after Markus Rosenberg.

Lukaku was expected to travel to the West Midlands today to finalise the move after choosing Albion over a host of clubs in England and abroad.

The 6ft 3in tall hitman turned down the chance to join Werder Bremen to remain in the Premier League and also rejected a loan move to Fulham.

He is now expected to complete a move to The Hawthorns, where he will compete for places in attack with Rosenberg, Peter Odemwingie, Shane Long and Marc-Antoine Fortune.

If completed, the signing is likely to hasten the departure of Ireland international forward Simon Cox, who is wanted by a group of Championship sides headed by Nottingham Forest.

But despite the arrival of Rosenberg and the likely capture of Lukaku, Baggies boss Steve Clarke has insisted that neither Odemwingie nor Long will be sold following speculation linking both players with moves away during the summer.

Lukaku signed for Chelsea from Anderlect a year ago as one of the hottest prospects in European football for a reported initial fee of £13m rising to £18m with add-ons.

He had bagged 33 goals in 73 games for the Belgian side and forced his way into his national side as a 17-year-old.

He has since won 14 international caps and scored twice.

Rosenberg is meanwhile aiming to be fit to face Liverpool in the Premier League opener on August 18 after being unveiled officially as a Baggies player yesterday alongside fellow summer signings Ben Foster, Yassine El Ghanassy and Claudio Yacob.

"I had a long season with Werder Bremen and played almost every game for 90 minutes," said the 29-year-old Sweden international.

"Then I went to the Euros and trained hard, although I only played the first game from the start and then played for about 10 minutes against England.

"Then I had a holiday for six weeks when I ran and did gym work but I didn't want to train with a team because getting injured when you don't have a contract is not good.

"I have trained with the team three times now and I'm doing extra training every day with the fitness coach and I'm getting there."