Will Arsenal be real winners if they sign West Brom’s Evans for £3m?

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Arsenal could sign Jonny Evans from West Brom for £3m this summer – thus making them the eventual winners?

Jonny Evans of West Bromwich Albion holds off James Milner of Liverpool during The Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match at Anfield.

West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew is hoping to tie captain Jonny Evans down to a new contract after fending off interest in the January transfer window.

Arsenal made a deadline day offer for the centre-back of around £12m, which the Baggies rejected, and now Pardew wants Evans to commit his long-term future to the club.

Alan Pardew, manager of West Bromwich Albion, looks on prior to the Premier League match against Manchester City.

“I told him what happened on deadline day, he understood that, and now in my view we need to sit Jonny down and see if we can get a contract that works for him going forward. If not, in the summer again we’re going to have this situation,” the West Brom boss was quoted by the Daily Mail.

“That’s something that I will speak to the board about in the next couple of weeks. He can only be open to those discussions if the figures are right because the market dictates and we have to understand what those figures would have been elsewhere. Whether we can reach those figures I don’t know.”

It is believed Evans will be offered a new deal worth around £100,000-a-week to make the 30-year-old the highest paid player at the Hawthorns.

Jonny Evans of West Bromwich Albion takes a throw-in during the Premier League match against Brighton and Hove Albion.

However, perhaps the things Pardew is most keen to avoid is he Northern Ireland international leaving this summer for just £3m – which is what the defender can currently do if the West Midlands side are relegated because of a clause.

Yet whether Evans will want to commit beyond his current contract, which expires in 2019, to a team that are currently bottom of the Premier League remains to be seen.

If not then the Gunners could be the real winners with the potential to sign the former Manchester United man in a few months for a quarter of what they offered in January.