If the Birmigham Mail are right, and they aren’t the only ones tipping this deal to go through, then Roy will be building some strength in depth in midfield.

West Bromwich Albion held on to beat Peterborough United as they braced themselves for the possible departure of captain Jonathan Greening.

The Albion skipper, who apparently wanted to play in the London Road fixture, was left out of the 18-man matchday squad , with Fulham edging closer to securing a deal for the 30-year-old.

West Brom boss Roberto Di Matteo told the Express that a deal seems close.

The two clubs are negotiating so I didn’t think it was right he was involved. I expect it to be sorted out in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Albion have been playing hardball with Hodgson all summer in Fulham’s pursuit of Greening, calling our first and last offers ‘derisory’ as chairman Jeremy Peace held out for around £4m for their midfielder. I wondered whether the Midlanders were taking advantage of Greening’s good nature after he pledged not to ‘rock the boat’ despite having handed in a transfer request.

The question is how we are going to fit all these midfielders into our side. We have a pretty strong first-team quartet at the moment, even assuming that new signing Damien Duff replaces Greening’s former team-mate at the Hawthorns, Zoltan Gera. There’s Simon Davies to come back and Kagiso Digakchoi to fit in, assuming that he does finalise his on-off move from Golden Arrows. Greening could will be Murphy’s understudy in the centre of the park, as we don’t really have a natural replacement for our captain. I reckon it would suit him much better than one of the wide positions.

Suddenly, Roy’s talk of strengthening his squad doesn’t look as fanciful as it did a week ago with only two new signings having made it to the Cottage.