West Brom step up pursuit of Aston Villa striker John Carew

Roberto Di Matteo, the West Bromwich Albion manager, tried to sign the Norwegian international two weeks ago, but Villa manager Gerard Houllier refused to sanction the move after Emile Heskey was suspended for three matches at Sunderland on Jan 5.

Carew made his first start since November in the second City derby on Sunday, but West Brom are confident that their move for the 31 year-old will be successful now that Villa have brought in Bent, despite interest from West Ham.

The two clubs are understood to have agreed most of the terms for Carew’s move before Heskey’s dismissal. It should be a case of starting where they left off, with Carew keen to start a new phase in his career without having to leave his Birmingham home, and Villa happy to sell him before his contract expires in the summer.

Meanwhile, Chris Brunt believes Peter Odemwingie will have received a huge boost having scored two goals against Blackpool at the weekend. The club’s leading scorer, returning from a series of injury problems, scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season and Brunt claims the striker has fully deserved his return to form.

“Peter has had a lot of chances in the last few games and I’m sure he hasn’t been pleased with himself,” said Brunt, who was named captain in the absence of Scott Carson. “But I was delighted to see him get two goals on Saturday and he never stops running.

“For the second goal it was a ‘route one’ ball up the pitch and if you don’t have Peter Odemwingie chasing after it you might not get the goal. Credit to him, he worked his socks off again and took his two goals well.

“He never stops running, even though he’s had a couple of injuries, and he does ork hard, so credit to him. I am glad he got his two goals on Saturday and I’m glad for everyone because we didn’t get what we deserved over the Christmas period.”