Beattie told he can go out on loan

Scottish striker Craig Beattie has been told by the club that he may leave for a loan spell elsewhere. Beattie signed for the Baggies during the summer of 2007 for an initial fee of £1.25 million, and immediately impressed by scoring a hatrick against pre season opposition SC Heerenveen on 4th August. His first competitive game for the club came in a 1-0 win over Bournemouth.

But Beattie has had trouble trying to establish himself in a squad which already boast an abundance of goals, and the arrival last week of Luke Moore from Aston Villa has only added to his misery of being pushed down the pecking order.

Beattie scored twice for the reserves last night in a 6-1 victory over Huddersfield Town.  But what the striker really wants is regular first team football, something which even he has realised is doubtful when behind Kevin Phillips, Ishmael Miller and Roman Bednar.  This trio have notched up a formidable 43 goals between them already this season.

Mowbray is insistent that he brought the 24 year old to the Hawthorns with a view to playing regularly, but things have just not worked out this way.  Building a team for the future, Mowbray will be reluctant to let the striker leave the club permanently.  Although a loan spell would as the gaffer says, help Beattie maintain match day fitness.

The speculation at present seems to suggest that Beattie will travel north and join Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday.  The Sheffield club have struggled for strike power recently with injuries to Francis Jeffers and Leon Clarke, but Beattie would still face competition from recent additions Enoch Showumni from Bristol City and Ben Sahar from Chelsea.