Roberto Di Matteo has ruled out Robert Koren leaving The Hawthorns after his recent impressive performances in Albion’s midfield. The World Cup bound Slovenian captain admitted he may search for first team football away from Albion after finding himself out of the team in the early part of the season. However following his return from injury and a change of formation, Koren has again established himself in the Baggies’ engine room.
The head coach has always insisted he wanted the former Lillestrom man to stay at The Hawthorns and had promised to review the situation when the January window opened. But Di Matteo has had no further discussion with Koren about is future and doesn’t expect any either.
“I never wanted to sell him,” the Italian insisted.
“He wanted to play on a regular basis – that was the situation.
“We were going to review it but he’s not been to see me so there are no problems.
“It wasn’t because I don’t like him, it was because we were doing well the way we were playing at the time and he was injured.
“I’ve always rated him as a very good player. Obviously he wants to play week in, week out.
“At the moment he is in the team and is playing well.
“It’s the same with Youssouf Mulumbu. He did very well for us at the beginning of the season.
“He wasn’t out of the team because of bad performance, we just had somebody else that came on for him, did very well and stayed in the team.
“I told him he would get back into the team at some point and that’s what happened.”