Alan Pardew calls on West Brom to make improved contract offer to Jonny Evans

The Baggies were already willing to make Evans their first permanent £100,000-a-week player, but boss Pardew believes they must now offer an even larger sum, in the hope it will bring the Northern Ireland international back to the negotiating table.

Evans’ future has been the subject of frequent speculation during the last two transfer windows, but he has remained at The Hawthorns despite interest from Arsenal and Manchester City.

The Gunners are understood to have failed with a £12million deadline day bid which was rejected out of hand by the Baggies.

Pardew said: “In my view we now need to sit Jonny down and see if we can get a contract that works for him going forward. If not, in the summer we’re going to have this situation again. That’s something that I will speak to the board about in the next couple of weeks.”

Evans is currently thought to earn around £70,000-a-week, as part of a deal which is due to expire in summer 2019. Daniel Sturridge became Albion’s new top earner, on £120,000-a-week, when he joined on loan from Liverpool earlier this week.

Any new deal for Evans would be dependent on Albion remaining in the Premier League. The 30-year-old’s current contract contains a relegation release clause which could see him leave for just £3million should the Baggies drop out of the top flight.

Pardew continued: “Jonny can only be open to those discussions if the figures are right because the market dictates and we have to understand what those figures would have been elsewhere.

“Whether we can reach those figures, I don’t know.”

The boss also praised the way Evans had conducted himself during the transfer window despite continued talk over his future.

“It’s very difficult for players to just put that to one side all the way through to the start of a football match or the start of training,” said Pardew.

“Then when you start training and kick the ball it all gets forgotten and that’s really what footballers do nine times out of 10.

“If there’s a really bad scenario you might start thinking ‘I don’t like it here’ or something.

“Hopefully we won’t get into that position and certainly I haven’t sensed that with Jonny on the pitch or at the training ground, or since I’ve been here with any of any of my players, but I have had it at previous clubs.

The boss added: “Jonny is clinical in terms of his thinking. Game time is game time and when he comes off the pitch of course he’s effectively CEO of his own company.

“He decides his own fate. It doesn’t matter about the team around him, his agent or anyone else.

“They can say what they like and have an opinion. At the end of the day Jonny Evans says ‘this is what I want to do’.

"I would like him to sign a new contract at this club but Jonny is the man who makes that decision.”