Official: West Brom confirm signing of Keith Andrews from Blackburn

Republic of Ireland international midfielder was keen to get first-team football ahead of the 2012 European Championships and his new manager is delighted with the signing

31 Jan 2012 23:43:00

By Ryan Benson

More On :  Blackburn Rovers, West Bromwich, Keith Andrews
Keith Andrews , Blackburn(Getty Images)

West Brom have confirmed the signing of Keith Andrews from Blackburn Rovers.

The Republic of Ireland international has left Rovers after struggling for first-team football at Ewood Park over the last year-and-a-half and has signed a short-term contract until the summer, with the club understood to have only paid a nominal fee.

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After Andrews passed his medical and selected the number eight shirt, his new manager, Roy Hodgson, spoke of his delight at signing a player he has been interested in for a while.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Hodgson said: “Keith is a player I know well and have admired for several years.

"He's a flexible midfielder who can play in a number of roles across midfield. He will bring experience to the squad and also has a good goalscoring record.

"We're delighted to have him on board as we look to achieve or our primary target, which is to secure a third successive season of Barclays Premier League football. "

The 31-year-old has 26 caps for Ireland and has an eye on playing for his country at this summer’s European Championships.

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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