Albion chairman Jeremy Peace has promised to weed out any charlatans in the event of the club attracting a prospective new owner.

Peace remains open to the idea of selling up at the Hawthorns, in the event of a wealthier benefactor-style stewardship appearing on the scene.

But the owner has been alarmed at the havoc created at clubs such as Portsmouth and Notts County, where new dawns have failed to deliver on promises of fresh investment.

The 53-year-old will not inflict those problems on the Baggies, if and when the chance comes to change the future direction of the club with the promise of major new funds.

City financier Peace acknowledges that it will take a new owner with greater wealth than his own to now significantly change the club’s horizons.

On the field, Albion are on the brink of a fourth promotion to the Premier League in the last eight years but the man who has overseen all of those top-flight campaigns insists there can be no change of strategy.

Sober prudence will never be replaced by extravagance at a club which refuses to write cheques it cannot cash – and if that means a continuation of the ‘yo-yo’ era which dominated the ‘Noughties,’ then so be it.

A wealthy benefactor, which the Baggies three main regional rivals have all enjoyed to varying degrees in the last 20 years, remains Albion’s best route to a different future but already the club has been out there on the market without attracting serious interest.

Peace may well repeat the exercise in the near future, but will have his guard up for the football fantasists being lured towards the game by the bright lights and profile.

He said: “We will run Albion on the basis that there is no benefactor and no great wealth coming into the club at any given moment.

“I’m sure the supporters would be delighted if that were to happen, but we would have to do our checks on any individuals coming in. The league conducts its own fit and proper persons test but we would do our own due diligence in that event.

“We have seen people purport to have money when actually they don’t and you can waste time going up blind alleys.

“The Premier League has a worldwide platform carrying a lot of kudos. Some would-be owners may have political reasons, some may be in it for the media profile but what we will have to ask is whether or not it would stand the test of time.

“I look around the Premier League and I see a lot of absentee landlords not in touch with the heritage of the game in our country.

“In the Championship, perhaps because we are all more tightly-grouped financially, I see greater camaraderie between the clubs.”

Peace believes that despite a generation of supporters brought up in the ‘Sky Age,’ the majority of Albion fans have bought into his philosophy.

He said: “They see the problems down at Portsmouth and by and large they know I’ve got to run this club as a business, otherwise it can be a very slippery slope.”

Peace was making his comments in a rare appearance before the cameras for BBC’s Late Kick Off show last night.

The Albion owner will already be planning for another shot at the top flight in the belief that establishing the club in the Premier League by making maximum use of their own capabilities – and not piling up debt chasing what they cannot afford – has to be the way forward.

Head coach Roberto Di Matteo will run a 22-man squad, while there will again be a heavy onus on Sporting and Technical Director Dan Ashworth to provide ‘intel’ on transfer targets.

Albion will not spend a fortune this summer and know they must get as much value for money as possible from whatever deals they strike.

Beyond that, the back up of the science and medicine departments and keeping more players fit for longer will be ever more vital, according to Peace.

He said: “This job is a privilege. It effects so many lives. We win and everybody is great, we lose and everyone feels terrible.

“It’s been a very exciting ride in my time – there’s always been something on the end of the season, promotion, relegations, the Great Escape. It’s been great fun – but there an awful lot of hard work ahead.”