TONY Mowbray has revealed he has made contact with Arsenal to 'explore' the possibility of keeping Jay Simpson on loan next season.

The 20-year-old striker arrived at The Hawthorns in January and has scored once in seven starts for the Baggies in his first-ever taste of Barclays Premier League action.

He also spent last season on loan at League One outfit Millwall, where his electric displays earned him the division's Player-of-the-Year award.

A hamstring injury in last month's FA Cup third-round replay at Burnley has hampered his progress with Albion.

But overall Mowbray has been impressed by what he has seen and would like to keep Simpson in his ranks beyond the end of the current campaign.

"It's something we've tipped-toed into with Arsenal," said the Baggies boss.

"At this moment we'll keep those conversations in-house.

"But it is something we've explored with Arsenal and we'll see what's decided in the longer term.

"He came on the scene and played with an innocence to his game.

"He gave everyone a lift and a spark, and looked very, very bright.

"He picked up an injury at Burnley mainly because of the game-time he was getting.

"He'd never been asked to play Premier League football for so many games on the bounce.

"Unsurprisingly, he picked up an injury and he hasn't quite hit the levels he reached, since coming back from the injury.

"The ability is undoubtedly there and it is up to us to rediscover that and give him the opportunity to rediscover that."

Mowbray is also keen to retain the services of on-loan Nancy hitman Marc-Antoine Fortuné next term.

But the Baggies chief admits the ball is in the French-Guyana forward's court when it comes to deciding his Hawthorns future at the end of the season.

"Marc knows we would like to keep him regardless of what happens," he added.

"He's shown his quality and talent.

"Yet, we're not in the driving seat to make that decision.

"He'll probably sit down at the end of the season and decide what he thinks.

"All we can do is give him a platform to enjoy his football and see where we are next season.

"There is no lockdown from us in his contract.

"We can't just say 'you're staying', regardless of what happens.

"If we were to go down and he decided he didn't want to stay and play in the Championship he wouldn't have to."

Meanwhile, Mowbray has played down media speculation linking League One Swindon's 24-goal top scorer Simon Cox with Albion.

"I think a lot of people are keeping an eye on Simon Cox," he insisted.

"He is scoring a few goals and you're not doing your job if you're not looking at him.

"I'm not keeping my eye on him personally but I would imagine our recruitment department and our scouts are watching a lot of players for the future.

"Depending what division we are in they will be looking at different scenarios and at this stage of the season speculation starts to grow.

"I get speculation landing on my desk.

"In the transfer window there are ten pages of it, after the transfer window there is half a page and then it starts to build up.

"The speculation will start to grow and I can't respond to every bit of transfer speculation because a lot of it is agent-driven."