Pulis expects Evans to reject City

West Brom boss Tony Pulis expects Jonny Evans to reject any further advances from Manchester City before the end of the transfer window.

The centre-back is reported to have been the subject of an £18million bid from City that was promptly rejected by the Baggies.

Evans missed the 1-1 draw with Stoke City at The Hawthorns on Sunday but stated in the pre-match programme that he is ignoring the speculation over his future and is committed to the club.

And Pulis is confident he will still have his captain by the time the window closes next Thursday.

"Have you read his programme notes? Hopefully he'll be with us," Pulis told Sky Sports after the match.

The 59-year-old is also eager to bolster his squad in the coming days, adding: "We're hoping we can bring the players in that we need to improve the club. Without Evans, [Nacer] Chadli, [Gareth] McAuley today, we had important players missing so these lads have done fantastic.

"We know the specific areas we want and we know two or three of the players as well."

The home side were denied a third win in three games when Peter Crouch cancelled out Jay Rodriguez's opener, the veteran striker making the most of a mix-up between Ahmed Hegazi and Ben Foster.

But Pulis was content with the point against a team he claims have greater funds at their disposal than his own.

@JayRodriguez9 loved scoring his first Albion goal at The Hawthorns!#WBA pic.twitter.com/QfO0aBWcTy

— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) 27 de agosto de 2017

"You have a look at the money they've invested, the players they've brought in from abroad... they spent real money," he said. "We were interested in [Kurt] Zouma but we couldn't afford that loan fee. They've spent a lot of money and they have some quality players.

"I thought our goal was a really well-worked goal and Jay took it brilliantly. Theirs was a mistake, really. Ahmed and Ben got mixed up more out of communication than anything else.

"That's eight, nine games I've managed against Stoke and they still haven't beaten us. We're pleased we got seven points from the games we've played and if we hadn't made that mistake, it would be nine. It's been a great start."

Mark Hughes, meanwhile, was happy to avoid a third defeat in a row against West Brom despite admitting the match was short on quality.

"We've gone behind against the run of play and showed good character to come back. We made some changes to make us more dynamic in the final third," said the Stoke boss.

"It wasn't a high-quality game and I didn't particularly enjoy it! But sometimes that's what you get when you come here. You've got to be vigilant, we made probably one mistake in the 90 minutes and that's when they scored. We had a good mentality to get back into the game.

"I don't know if the conditions just took the edge off both sides. It's a warm day, long grass, no water on the pitch. In the end, we'll take the point, it's an improvement on our performance here last year."