Tony Pulis' "selective and particular" approach to player recruitment cost West Brom in the transfer window, if a statement from chairman John Williams is anything to go by.
The Baggies brought in the likes of Nacer Chadli, Allan Nyom and Hal Robson-Kanu before the deadline, but reportedly missed out on Malaga star Ignacio Camacho and Sporting CP midfielder William Carvalho.
Pulis had targetted five new signings and got just that – a point made abundantly clear in Williams' comments – but while the quantity box was ticket, it is doubtful the arrivals fulfilled the quality required to boost their Premier League survival prospects.
And Williams' statement hinted potential trouble at the top at The Hawthorns.
"Our head coach Tony Pulis is very selective and particular about the players he recruits so it follows that the new team members will add significantly to his first-team options," it read.
"Tony wanted five and we got five. That having been said, the one disappointment we suffered was not being able to add a further quality midfield player.
"We were a long way down the road with a deal, which for the second time in the window would have broken the club transfer record, thanks to the on-going support of Jeremy Peace and Guochuan Lai.
"But it was decided for footballing reasons not to pursue this. Despite it being late in the window, we decided to pursue another high-quality target. Unfortunately, we were not able to get the deal over the line.
"However, it does mean we can re-group if a suitable new deal presents itself in January when we will be ready to act.
"It has been an extremely difficult market, but we've ticked some of our boxes."
