Tony Mowbray has admitted he'll opt for Premiership experience over youthful talent when deciding on targets during the January transfer window. The Baggies boss and his backroom team have been drawing up shortlists for the 31-day period with Mowbray searching for a defensive midfielder and a striker.
Whether on-loan or permanently, Mowbray looks likely to prefer experienced pros in an attempt to draw the Baggies away from the relegation zone with the boss declaring he's decided on certain players he'd like to bring to the squad.
"I know the type of players I'd like in an ideal world," the Albion boss said.
"You can't sit here and say 'he's got to be 28, play in this position and have Premier League experience'.
"You have to look at what's available, weigh up the options and whittle them down to the ones which you can say yes to.
"For example, there may be some 17-year-olds playing in the Premier League who could come here.
"But at the time you may think not because 'this guy is 28 or 29 and, while he may not have as much talent, he knows the league inside out'.
"Come the time we will have to decide that - the 17/18-year-old may have more talent, but the team may need experience.
"Having said all that, at this moment in time, there isn't a long list of available 29-year-olds who can play centre-forward or as a sitting midfielder in the Premier League, which is what we want."
Despite scoring more than 200-goals in the last two seasons the Baggies have been desperately short of fire power this term hitting the back of the net only ten times from 14 attempts this term. After the departure of Kevin Phillips Albion were linked to a number of players, and despite a number of attempts in the summer, new forwards failed to materialise.
With Mowbray currently calling upon the services of Roman Bednar, Ishmael Miller and Luke Moore for first-team action he insists strikers will not be brought just to make up the numbers.
"We tried very hard in the last window to buy a specific player for a certain position, as we did until the last few minutes of the window with a striker, yet it didn't quite work," added Mowbray.
"As a manager, you need to get the player you want rather than just bringing in some faces or names.
"For me, you need a strong base to start from and if you have that then you just want to add bits of quality here and there.
"What happens with promoted sides is there are too many positions to create competition in and, while you are happy to bring this or that player in, when you look at the make-up you still may need others.
"The point being, you get the players you want, not just to make up numbers, because those you get on that basis may not be better than what you've got, and those are the players you get judged on.
"The team either suffer or prosper.
He added: "The two players we missed out on in the last few days of the window would have been big players for us in this situation.
"But I was happy to go with what we've got.
"I always felt there were enough goals in this team and that the test was always going to be there for Ish, Roman and Luke.
"But we haven't scored as many as we would have liked to, whether down to the lack of creativity or quality of the opposition.
"With the defensive midfield side of it, Koren and Greening were no problem last season yet I'd prefer to play Greening higher up the pitch with the striking situation as it is - but that can create an imbalance."