West Brom open Foster talks

West Brom have opened talks with Birmingham aimed at signing goalkeeper Ben Foster on a permanent basis, the Baggies’ sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth has confirmed.

Foster spent last season on loan from Blues to Albion and was named their player of the year after helping them finish 10th in the Barclays Premier League.

The former England player has also been linked with QPR and Tottenham but has often admitted he was happy with life at the Hawthorns.

Ashworth told the Wolverhampton Express and Star: “We’ve started discussions with Birmingham and we hope we can find a solution that suits them and suits us.

“If we can’t, then no problem – we’ll have to move on. But it’s down to discussions with them.

“As with every transfer, the selling club has ’X’ in mind and the buying club only value at ’Y’ so you hope that you find a tipping point that suits both parties.”

Ashworth has also played down speculation that Swedish defender Jonas Olsson, who has one year left of his contract, is close to completing a move to West Ham.

He said: “Jonas is still under contract and nobody has contacted me or anybody else at West Bromwich Albion about a transfer.

“He is one of our most important players and we would like to keep him like we did last year with Youssouf Mulumbu and Peter Odemwingie last year.

“We’re trying to build a squad not sell our best players.”