5:00pm Friday 12th March 2010
By Andy Naylor
Albion will sign a goalkeeper on loan in the next fortnight – but it will not be Stoke’s Steve Simonsen.
Manager Gus Poyet has conceded defeat over his interest in Simonsen and is working on “a big list of names” to provide cover for Peter Brezovan before the loan deadline later this month.
Scholar Mitch Walker will, in the meantime, be on the bench again for Swindon’s visit tomorrow.
Poyet does not want to be left short-handed for the run-in, with Michel Kuipers out for the rest of the campaign with a broken finger.
He said: “We need to make the decision in terms of what we can do if something happened to Peter.
“There are different options, plenty of options. We are trying to make the right decision. It’s not an easy one, so we need to take our time.
“We’ve got up until the 25th. At the moment I’m quite comfortable with the situation but, of course, I need to be careful. From the 25th of March then you don’t have any options.
“Of course, it depends on many things – the next two or three games, how you are doing, what position you are in.
“We don’t want to, with all respect, put Mitch in a really difficult position which will maybe affect him for the rest of his life, in a good way or bad way.”
The Argus revealed earlier this week that Albion had asked about Simonsen’s availability.
He is third choice at Stoke but is attracting interest from Championship clubs and does not want to drop down to League One or move so far from his home in Southport.
Poyet said: “I don’t think it is something that is going to happen now. I don’t know how it came out, we have got a big list of names.
"I don't think there is going to be any possibility of bringing him."
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