Mowbray will welcome Gera

Former player faces uncertain reception from Baggies support

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 2nd October 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Mowbray will welcome Gera

Gera: Returning to The Hawthorns

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Tony Mowbray insists he will be courteous when former West Brom winger Zoltan Gera returns this weekend.

The Hungarian international left The Hawthorns over the summer, completing a switch to the Baggies' Premier League rivals Fulham.

The contentious nature of his departure, in which he turned down a new deal with Mowbray's men, is likely to see him receive a frosty reception from those inside the ground on Saturday.

However, West Brom boss Mowbray revealed he will welcome Gera back with open arms.

Future

"Zoltan's a lovely man, a good guy and I think he was looking after his future when he went to Fulham," Mowbray told the Express and Star.

"It appears to me it was about security for Zoltan when he left. Without going in-depth about contracts, I'm talking about the way our contracts are structured slightly differently to the way they are at Fulham.

"He probably gets slightly more security for the next four or five years at Fulham. Good luck to the lad.

"While he was under contract at our football club he gave everything he could all of the time I was here. It was a delight to work with him. He's a lovely personality and a lovely guy.

"He appears to have started his career at Fulham well and has scored a couple of goals.

Respect

"If the fans respect what he did for their football club in his days here then they should give him a decent reception and then get on with the game.

"If they don't like the way he exited then I'm sure they'll let him know.

"I'm only really interested in the current crop of players we've got here at Albion and trying to get a result against a team that aren't going to finish in the top four or six and we should be competing with.

"We need to try to get a result against them."