West Brom manager, Tony Pulis, has spoken about those rumours linking one of his ‘best players’, Jonny Evans, to Arsenal and admitted that if we do come in with an offer, sometimes that’s just football.

Speaking ahead of the Baggies’ Premier League clash against Everton on Saturday, Pulis insisted that he wants to keep the defender but didn’t sound entirely convinced that he will. Hmm.

“You don’t want to lose your best players, but in football sometimes that happens,” Pulis said.

“If it does happen, you need to make sure you know where your replacements are.

“If Arsenal come in for Jonny, if we do any business we’ll do it between the clubs. I wouldn’t talk here about doing a deal with Arsenal or anybody else.

“The most important thing is that Jonny is with us and we want him to stay because he’s an outstanding player.

“Last Saturday, whether it was Townsend or Zaha, and it’s not Jonny’s favourite position playing as a full-back, he was most probably our best player on the pitch.”

What we can tell from this, at least, is that Arsenal don’t appear to have made an approach yet. Pulis was talking hypothetically. However, the manager seems pretty open to letting the ex-Manchester United star go.

The comments come amid gossip that the Gunners are set to make a £16m bid for the 28-year-old and have it rejected, which is a bit of a weird rumour anyway. At least report that we’ve made a bid before claiming we’ve had one turned down!

We do need a centre-back following injuries to both Per Mertesacker and Gabriel but is Evans really the way to go?