Romaine Sawyers' future spotlighted as West Brom & Stoke address transfer stance

Romaine Sawyers faces an uncertain few months between now and the end of the season.

The West Bromwich Albion midfielder, who is spending this season on loan at Championship rivals Stoke City, sees his three-year contract expire in the summer, although the club do have the option to extend the boyhood Baggie’s stay by a further year.

Last summer, you’d have imagined that Sawyers had played his last game for Albion. Cast out into the cold by Sam Allardyce, he was the antithesis of an archetypal Valerien Ismael midfielder, too.

At Stoke he has since felt the love again, of Michael O’Neill who utilised him on a weekly basis until he suffered an infuriating quad injury before Christmas which has ruled him out of action ever since.

During his time away from The Hawthorns, though, the picture has changed again - on and off the pitch. Albion, under Ismael, were eyeing an immediate return to the Premier League, but things began to go awry relatively quickly and Steve Bruce’s appointment soon followed.

Things haven’t immediately improved - indeed they’ve declined further - but the bigger picture for Albion and Sawyers is that there may yet still be light at the end of the tunnel with Bruce at the helm.

The truth is that there’s uncertainty still at Sawyers’ parent club. Will Bruce be here next season if Albion remain a Championship club? If not, will the next man in the hot-seat wish to retain him?

It’s clear that O’Neill is a fan of Sawyers’ abilities but he accepts that things aren’t as clear cut at the Potters’ end.

“It’s out of our control really because West Brom have an option on Romaine,” O’Neill told Stoke-on-TrentLive. “It’s not a choice we would have [like with James Chester]. Romaine would have to sort his