Jonas Olsson 'expected to stay'

Steve Clarke today gave his strongest indication yet that Jonas Olsson will stay at West Brom as he confirmed he is still looking for new faces.

The Baggies boss praised the club for landing five signings already this summer and insisted he still believes Olsson will be with the club after the end of the transfer window.

Albion are in talks with Olsson over a contract extension and are hopeful they can persuade the Sweden international to sign.

Head coach Clarke said: "There has been no indication that Jonas is going to leave us. Over the summer he's worked well, played games and played with his normal 100 per cent commitment.

"He's got a year left on his contract so he's not a free transfer so as far as we're concerned Jonas is under contract and will be with us next season.

"There is nothing that's happened over pre-season to change our mind on that."

Clarke meanwhile confirmed that the Baggies remain in the market for more new signings following the permanent capture of Ben Foster from Birmingham, the free-transfer arrivals of Claudio Yacob and Markus Rosenberg and the loan deals for Yassine El Ghanassy and Romelu Lukaku.

Defensive reinforcements are now thought to be at the top of his wanted list but Clarke has insisted he is in no rush to add new faces after the club's successful early deals.

"Maybe we don't have immediate cover for Liam Ridgewell but Gonzalo Jara and Billy Jones can play at left-back so there is cover in the squad," he said.

"There's perhaps not natural cover in the squad but we do have cover.

"It's important to get the basis of your squad in place. As the transfer window reaches the end of August it will become a little bit frantic.

"And you don't want to be in a position where you're making rash decisions without thinking them through.

"So we've tried to do business early and build a squad early.

"If the window closed now, I'd be happy with the squad I've got.

"If something came up between now and the end of the window that could improve the squad we would look to do it, but we're in a position now where we don't have to make rash decisions."