WEST Brom manager Tony Mowbray is confident his club will make a compromise with Wanderers in order to sign Abdoulaye Meite.

Having had one bid of £1.25million turned down already this summer, the Baggies boss has kept a close eye on the defender’s situation at the Reebok Stadium.

Hull City were preparing to launch a bid of their own before switching their attention to Tottenham’s Anthony Gardner, leaving West Brom alone in the race to sign the Ivory Coast international.

And reports in the Midlands suggest the fact he no longer faces a bidding war against Tigers boss Phil Brown has prompted Mowbray into making a second attempt.

“Transfer windows are where they are. The further you are from kick-off the more money it is and the more agents stick to their demands,” he said.

“When it gets closer to kick-off they start getting more realistic and they come back to you with proposals as opposed to you having to throw money at everything.

“I’m frustrated because I’d like my team gelling by the time we kick off.”

Hawthorns technical director Dan Ashworth is thought to be negotiating the second bid, thought to be worth around £2m.

And although Brown was quoted earlier this summer that Wanderers were asking for £3m, the centre-half’s increasingly bleak outlook at Bolton could force their hand into settling for a lower fee.