West Brom attempt to tie promising teenager Tyler Roberts down to new contract
Alan Pardew will run the rule over promising youngster Tyler Roberts in January as the Baggies attempt to tie the teenager down to a new contract.
The 18-year-old forward has caught the eye of several clubs while impressing on loan at Walsall this season, where he has scored five times in 15 League One appearances.
Albion have already rejected a multimillion pound bid for Roberts, who has Premier League and Championship clubs interested as well as top-four French side Marseille.
His contract with the Baggies runs out at the end of the season, and the club have offered him a new deal with talks ongoing.
Roberts will return to the Albion training ground in just over a week's time when his six-month loan with Walsall ends and Pardew will explore the possibility of either promoting him to the first team squad or sending him back out on loan.
Roberts has been at the club since he was seven and penned his first professional contract back in January 2016.
He is known to several Premier League clubs, including Brighton, Leicester, and Swansea, but is looking forward to returning to Albion and trying to impress the new head coach.
Pardew is planning to assess all of his strike options after watching his side score just one goal in his first four games in charge.
He is prioritising a striker in January and is interested in bringing Liverpool front-man Danny Ings in on loan.
But he faces competition from Newcastle United, and is also interested in the potential of promoting talent from within.
Pardew has been preoccupied with the senior players since his arrival last month, but is starting to take a keener look at the club's youngsters in order to assess his wider squad ahead of the January transfer window.
This week he has looked at 18-year-old winger Jonathan Leko and 17-year-old midfielder Rekeem Harper in training - despite them being on season-long loans at Bristol City and Blackburn Rovers respectively.
Defenders Shaun Donnellan and Kane Wilson, whose loan deals with Walsall and Exeter City expire in January, have also been training with the Baggies.
Darren Moore, who has been promoted to first-team coach under Pardew, knows the crop of youngsters well because he helped sort out their loan moves in his previous role and has been briefing the head coach on each of them.
