Alan Pardew says he warned Arsenal that West Bromwich Albion would knock back any late bids, so they only have themselves to blame for the response they got.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Arsenal made a bid of around £12m for Jonny Evans on deadline day.

West Brom were asking for way more than that last summer, but that changed recently. First, Manchester City pulled out of the race, then the BBC reported that he could leave for £3m in the summer.

The Gunners clearly hoped a smaller bid might work under the circumstances, but Pardew says there was no chance. He told a press conference on Thursday (via Daily Star): “It wasn’t for lack of warning to Arsenal and to all the clubs.

“I’ve sat here every week saying ‘don’t make a bid on the last day, because you’re not going to get what you want, really.’ It needed to be a bid that’s going to knock us off our chair, and it was no way near that.

“So they got probably the response they were expecting with that bid, I think. Jonny is a very, very important player. He is a great player. He is part of the spine of the team and that’s what I tried to strengthen this window.”

To be honest, I think West Brom are taking a bit of a gamble by keeping Evans. They’re hoping they can avoid relegation with the defender’s help, so the £3m clause will never be a factor. It could all go very wrong if they do go down, because they’ll lose one of their most valuable assets for next to nothing.

Besides, a £12m bid is considerably more than West Brom paid for Kieran Gibbs over the summer (£6.75m). If they couldn’t muster up £10m for an experienced international playing for Arsenal, I don’t see why Pardew thinks £12m is such a derisory offer. Especially considering the Gunners were the only team after him.

They made their choice, now we’ll just have to see how things pan out over the rest of the season.