West Brom looking to bring in 'one, maybe two' players in January window

Gourlay also confirmed exits could be possible this month and said Albion must continue to cut their cloth according to their means – and players sales could be required. The Baggies are aiming for a return to the Premier League next season with parachute payments drop significantly at the end of this season.

Gourlay, who will mark one year as CEO next month, said he has worked to ‘rebalance’ the squad in cutting costs and revealed that must continue

Albion continue to receive little investment from controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai, who has missed two £5million loan repayment deadlines.

Gourlay said: “People are used to the club being in the Premier League, or at least not in the Championship for more than two years.

“You’ve got to cut your cloth accordingly. I have rebalanced the squad, cut the costs, and reduced the wages across the board. That has to continue.

“This is where the academy becomes more important. Part of that comes a rebuild of the squad as well – that’s just transition.

“But we need investment, nothing stops us from having minority investors who can take less than 10 per cent and put money in.

“I never like to sell players, but if we do have to sell players to keep the club running sustainably, then that’ll be a decision I’ll have to take – I won’t be afraid to do it to protect the club.” Gourlay is confident in the valuation of assets through players the club have been able to put together.

“We’ve got assets in the football club, we’ve been very smart over the past 12 months,” he continued. “You’ll start to see the valuations of Dike, Thomas-Asante, Wallace, and Diangana go up. We have assets that hopefully will take us to the Premier League. It’s when you don’t have assets that problems arise, but we addressed that in the summer.

“Going forward, we can deal with what we need to deal with. We’re not far away, but unfortunately, we’re being held back.”