West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Mowbray is convinced Curtis
Davies will not become affected by persistent transfer
speculation.
Mowbray reportedly rejected a £5 million bid from Tottenham for the
Baggies captain last week, and Arsenal and Aston Villa have also
cast admiring glances at the promising England Under-21
international.
Nigel Quashie has already left Albion in the transfer window, while
Zoltan Gera and Nathan Ellington, targets of Middlesbrough and
Wigan respectively, could follow suit.
Despite the prospect of more comings and goings at The Hawthorns,
Mowbray is keen for his players to focus on their promotion charge
- though he admits that has been hard for Ellington.
"Players have to get on with the job - whatever the speculation. It
can be disruptive. The speculation has come at a bad time for us
but we got a good result against Leeds United on the back of the
speculation," said Mowbray.
"We have got to hope that this will remain the case until the end
of January, because I am sure there is more speculation to
come.
"Speculation affects different people in different ways. We had a
case at the weekend when we didn't play Nathan Ellington because of
that.
"But I think Curtis Davies will have no problem handling the
speculation regarding himself. I have no fears about that.
"His performance was outstanding at the weekend and, if that was
because of the speculation, then please keep the speculation
coming!
"If his performance level remains as high as it was at the weekend,
then we will all be happy. The bottom line is we hope he will still
be here at the end of the transfer window."
