ALBION have made no breakthrough in contract talks with midfield star Dale Stephens.

Burnley have had multiple bids rejected for Stephens, who is out of contract next summer with partner Beram Kayal and has refused so far to sign a new long-term deal.

Chairman Tony Bloom said: “It goes without saying the club would love him to sign a long-term deal and we’ve been working on that for quite a while but we can’t force a player to sign if he doesn’t want to.

“He’s done fantastically for us. We’ll just have to see how it goes over the next month and year.

“Beram’s in a similar situation. Like all clubs, there will be the occasional important player whose contract has a year to run. It’s not unusual.”

Bloom has also rejected substantial bids this summer from Crystal Palace for Lewis Dunk and Newcastle for Anthony Knockaert.

He told the annual fans’ forum at the Amex last night: “Our line is always the same.

“We want to keep the squad of players that performed so magnificently last season together as much as possible to give us the best chance of promotion.

“But on the other side I’m not saying there’s any guarantees, because I don’t think there are any clubs in the world outside perhaps of Real Madrid and Barcelona that can give those sort of guarantees.

“The next four weeks will be a long four weeks and we’ll see where we are on the first of September.”