Albion sporting director Dan Ashworth has claimed the club are in good shape to claim promotion as the Baggies revealed they bid £2million for Victor Moses.

A club statement has revealed for the first time how much Albion were prepared to pay to land Moses, who eventually moved to the Premier League with Wigan.

But sporting and technical director Ashworth insisted the Baggies are well-placed for the remainder of the season despite missing out on Moses, for whom the club were prepared to dip into future budgets temporarily despite insisting they would not spend transfer fees in January.

Moses was seen as a virtually risk-free investment, with the Baggies confident his value would only have increased over time.

Ashworth said: “Crystal Palace’s financial problems provided clubs with a unique opportunity to sign one of the game’s brightest young talents – exactly the type of player we should be in the market for.

“We invested all of our available resources in the playing squad in the summer, but we decided to make a move for Victor knowing full well we had various options open to us to fund the deal.

“Unfortunately, as soon as a Premier League club came in, it was always going to be an uphill task for us to sign the player and Victor has opted for top-flight football, which he is more than entitled to do.”

Albion sold defender Shelton Martis during the window, while Leon Barnett extended his loan at Coventry and Filipe Teixeira made a loan switch to Barnsley.

But they held on to all their key players and Ashworth is in confident mood for the rest of the season.

He said: “I believe that, with the signings we have made in January, and the possibility of James Morrison and Giles Barnes recovering from injury in the coming weeks, we are well set for the run-in.

“We will also be keeping a close eye on the loan market should the need arise for us to strengthen any areas of the squad. This season, we have made a determined effort to focus on the quality of the first-team squad by attempting to reduce its overall size to a target of 22.

“We believe all of the senior players currently at the club are of a good quality for this division and can all contribute between now and May.