A frantic deadline day at West Bromwich Albion ended in frustration and disappointment for Tony Pulis after the Midlands club signed Darren Fletcher from Manchester United on a free transfer but saw moves for Carlton Cole and Martin Olsson collapse late on.
Although Fletcher’s arrival from Old Trafford will be seen as something of a coup for Albion, who have agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal with an option for a further 12 months with the Scotland international, Pulis was also desperate to bring in a recognised left-back and a target man to play alongside Saido Berahino. Olsson and Cole ticked those boxes and at one stage it looked as though both transfers would go through before the window closed.
Cole arrived at Albion’s training ground in good time, completed a medical and was waiting for confirmation that he would become an Albion player. However, West Ham refused to sanction the transfer at the last minute when it became clear that they were not going to be able to sign Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, leaving Pulis without the striker he badly wanted and forcing Cole to return to London. Tottenham’s chairman, Daniel Levy, pulled the plug on Adebayor’s proposed move to West Ham, not least because of bad blood over the Olympic Stadium.
It is understood that Olsson, whose transfer from Norwich City would have seen Graham Dorrans move in the opposite direction, was unable to agree personal terms. Dorrans, who had travelled to Norwich for talks and a medical earlier in the day, saw his switch fall through as a result.
Brown Ideye, the club record signing who has endured such a miserable time since arriving last summer, also remains an Albion player for the moment. Whether the £10m striker will now come back into Pulis’s thinking in the wake of the failure to sign Cole is unclear - Al-Gharafa had agreed a €5m fee for the forward and that deal could yet go ahead with Qatar’s transfer window open until 19 February.
There is, however, little doubt that Pulis will be bitterly disappointed that his attempts to breathe fresh life into Albion’s survival prospects ended with Fletcher being the only addition to the earlier signing of Callum McManaman from Wigan.
Fletcher, who made 342 appearances at Old Trafford, will add experience and leadership to the Albion midfield. He had been expected to join West Ham but when that deal fell through on the weekend, Albion stepped up their interest in the 31-year-old, who started only four Premier League games under Louis van Gaal this season.
