West Brom and Hearts agree £2.3m Bednar fee

Albion have agreed a fee of £1.8 million should they fail to gain promotion from the Coca Cola Championship, which will rise by an additional £500,000 if they are playing in the Barclays Premier League next season.

West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace confirmed: "We've agreed a pre-contract deal with Hearts at the end of the season – with a fee of £1.8 million if we are in the Championship and £2.3 million if we are in the Premier League. Roman is making very positive noises and I hope he will be with us next season – whatever division we are in."

West Brom manager Tony Mowbray has been delighted with the progress made by Bednar in helping his side push for a return to the top flight.

He said: "Was I surprised Hearts allowed me to have Bednar? Not really. He was injured when he was there and someone told me they had 72 players at the time and their wage bill needed addressing.

"He has got himself fit, he is a hungry boy and wants to progress his career and hopefully we can facilitate that ambition with him. I think he enjoys being here.

"If the deal happens, it is still going to be a fair few quid. When you do the deal, you are thinking he is going to have to be pretty good for us to pay £2.3 million. But you do the deal and see how things go and Roman has done exceptionally well for us."

Bednar suffered a calf injury during the Baggies' 1-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, which came courtesy of a last-gasp goal from substitute Kevin Phillips.

And defender Carl Hoefkens also picked up a leg injury in the match which keeps Mowbray's side on course for automatic promotion.

But Mowbray insisted: "I think Roman will be fine He just got a knock on his calf. I think they'll both be okay for the weekend."

Mowbray has shown his commitment to the FA Cup by fielding strong line-ups in the pr
evious three rounds, including the 5-0 demolition of Coventry at the Ricoh Arena in the last round. However, the former Hibernian manager is keen to avoid a replay against Rovers – who knocked out another Championship side in Southampton in the fifth round – and the possibility of an end-of-season fixture pile-up.

Mowbray said: "I don't want to be playing catch-up and chasing. The further you go on in the cup, the more you miss in the league and, if you have replays, you might get midweek league games moved as well.

"That scenario happens. To get a replay in, you have to move a league fixture from a Tuesday night to somewhere in late April and all of a sudden you get a backlog late on when you're chasing points.

"That's not the best-case scenario for us but the FA Cup is important to us and no-one wants to devalue it. We have paid the competition the respect it deserves."

Taken from the Scotsman