West Brom close to agreeing new deal with Craig Dawson

Dawson has one year left on his current £25,000-a-week contract but is now in line for a long-term deal with higher wages after two-and-a-half impressive seasons under Tony Pulis.

The 27-year-old has only missed one Premier League game in the last two campaigns, and that was due to suspension.

The club have been in talks with his representatives since the start of May, but discussions have progressed recently, and are now nearing a conclusion.

Dawson is on holiday at the moment, but is expected to put pen to paper on a new deal shortly after he returns for pre-season in the first week of July.

Evans has already been the subject of a £10m bid from Leicester City this summer and the Foxes are considering returning with a higher offer.

Reports the Baggies have offered him a massive £100,000-a-week contract are premature, but the club are planning to speak to their star defender about a new deal in the coming weeks.

Evans still has two years left on the four-year contract he signed when he joined from Manchester United, but Albion are eager to tie him down to ward off other clubs.

Leicester are reportedly weighing up a new £15million bid, but that is still nowhere near Albion’s valuation of the Northern Irishman, who also received interest from Arsenal last summer.

Tony Pulis is focusing on the spine of his team this summer, and is searching for a centre-back and a centre-forward in particular.

Although the club are in talks with Southampton over a deal for Jay Rodriguez, Pulis would still like to add a second striker to his squad as well.

However, Albion are set to miss out on two of their strike targets.

Cologne’s Anthony Modeste, who has been on the radar for a year, is on the verge of a £30m move to China where he will join up Tianjin Quanjin.

And newly-promoted Huddersfield Town have bid £11.5m for Montpellier striker Steve Mounie.

The 22-year-old was one of several options the Baggies were pursuing up front.