West Brom boss urges Abdoulaye Meite to take his chance

Oct 14 2009 by Chris Lepkowski

Abdoulaye Meite

ROBERTO Di Matteo has told Albion hopeful Abdoulaye Meite 'it's up to you now'.

The Ivory Coast defender has never fully settled at The Hawthorns since his move from Bolton Wanderers last summer.

He suffered a succession of injuries under previous boss Tony Mowbray and was left out of Di Matteo's side in the opening 10 League games.

But Shelton Martis' dip of form re-opened the door for Meite, who performed reasonably well in Albion's 0-0 stalemate at Preston North End.

The Baggies are still looking for a centre-half - having most likely missed out on Sol Campbell - and continue to monitor Gabriel Tamas' troubled situation at Dinamo Bucharest.

Chat with Chris Lepkowski live online tomorrow at 10.15am at www.birminghammail.net/live

But Di Matteo has urged his giant defender to cement his place in the team, while he continues his search for new players.

"We are always working behind the scenes - we'll get to January and see what the situation is," said the Italian, who is mindful that Meite may be absent for up to six weeks in the New Year due to the Ivory Coast's involvement in the African Cup of Nations.

"We had a good a game at Preston.

"We looked solid, we had two holding midfielders in front of back four which helped them out.