Tony Pulis: Shut the transfer window before season starts

Albion have struggled to make signings this summer, and have only added two players to their squad so far.

Pulis has urged supporters to be patient, because the Baggies are low-down in the food chain and have to wait to do their business until nearer the end of the window.

But Albion play three league games before the window shuts at the end of the month, and Pulis is now staring down the barrel of making do with a small squad for those matches.

“I wouldn’t have it that way,” he said. “I’d have it finishing on the first day of the season and people will do their business a lot earlier then. It would give you an opportunity and a chance to work with the players before the season starts.”

Despite the impending fixtures, Pulis won’t be drawn into panic-buying a load of players just to make up the numbers. Having now cleared out the deadwood left to him at the start of 2015, he is determined to sign players that will improve the first team.

“We can’t do what the club did three or four years ago when they just brought in a load of players and hoped they were good,” he said. “I want to make sure the players that we’re going for are the right types and right ones.

“I think this is a good football club and I’m trying to bring in good players.”

The problem Pulis is finding, though, is that the best players he’s targeting are holding out for top six clubs if possible.

“There’s no doubt when the bigger clubs finish their business there’s more money around, more options to buy and take players,” he said. “I’m not saying they’ve finished their business, I’m sure they’re looking for more. But we have to be patient.”

Thanks to injuries and a lack of signings, the Baggies could be thin on the ground come the start of the season, but Pulis has reassured fans that his side will be ready.

“We’ll always be ready, whichever team we put out,” he said. “It’s a home game at The Hawthorns, a tough game, Bournemouth have sorted their squad out really early.”

Although FIFA sets the parameters for the transfer window, the closing date of the summer window (August 31) was adopted because it mirrored the UEFA deadline for registration of players.

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough boss Garry Monk says only an ‘extraordinary offer’ could persuade them to part with Albion target Ben Gibson.

The Baggies have had a bid totalling £21million rejected for the defender. And asked about Gibson’s future, Monk insisted: “It would have to be an extraordinary offer for any player to leave and we don’t want our important players to leave.

“He is fine, training well, determined and has this club in his heart, looking forward to the season ahead.”