Albion are braced for another season of blank shirts after chairman Jeremy Peace admitted the hunt for a new sponsor is still proving difficult.

The Baggies are ready to play out a second successive campaign without a main backer on their kits with Peace still refusing to ‘sell the club short’.

The played the entire Premier League season without a sponsor after the four-year deal with T-Mobile ended and no-one met the club’s asking price.

Peace said: “It is a difficult marketplace and lots of clubs are looking.

“I suspect we might have another season with an empty shirt. We set out our stall and said we wouldn’t undersell it last summer and I still think that was right.

“We had a four-year relationship with T-Mobile that went extremely well.

“We could have got three or four people on the shirt at a certain level but we didn’t.

“We got really close to having a company on the shirt, who would have paid the right level. Then the whole of the Far East fell apart so we didn’t complete that one.”

Albion have until early July to secure a sponsor before unveiling their kits for next season, although last year the sale of blank shirts included an offer to attach a sponsor’s name later if a deal was struck.

But the chances of securing a deal appear to be receding with Peace reluctant to set a precedent by settling for a reduced price.

The club insist they clawed back most of the lost revenue last season by re-selling advertising boards and corporate boxes normally given to main sponsors as well as through extra sales of blank shirts, which proved popular with supporters.

They have explored the possibility of promoting a charity, as Villa did in a two-year agreement with Acorns, but believe such a deal could deter donations with fans believing the charity was receiving financial support from the club.

They could also use the shirts to promote the club’s own community activities, but Peace said: “We would like to put something on there this year but we don’t want to put a name on the shirt for the name’s sake.

“Commercially that wouldn’t be a very good deal. What’s the point? You might as well be honest and say ‘there’s no money’.”