January sales are big business to Albion

Every transfer window is important nowadays and West Brom need to do a lot of business in January, according to first-team coach Ben Garner.

The January window used to have a grubby stigma. It was only for desperate teams having bad seasons who wanted to panic-buy players at inflated prices.

However, these days things are different. Garner reckons if a Premier League club does not utilise every window to its full potential, it will fall by the wayside.

He said: "Every window is important for a club like ours. You've got to try and improve. Whether that's two players, three, four, or five, you need to improve on what you've got.

"That's not being disrespectful to the players we've got, it's evolution. We need to improve the team and the players that are here need to rise to that as well.

"We want players that are going to take these [existing] players forward and challenge them to make them better."

Garner joined the club at the start of October and previously held a coaching role under Tony Pulis at Crystal Palace.

The 35-year-old pointed out that Pulis has signed some important players during the shorter window.

Garner said: "I've seen it before when Tony was at Crystal Palace. He signed some really good players.

"Scott Dann, Joe Ledley, Wayne Hennessey; Jason Puncheon was a loan made permanent.

"Those players really took that team to another level and I think that's what we need to do here."

Pulis has stated Albion are looking for wingers, full-backs and a midfielder in January, and chief scout Jeff Baskerville has been working hard.

When Garner was brought in, part of his remit was recruitment. He explained: "I've been speaking with Jeff in terms of putting profiles together for positions.

"So the scouts have now got profiles to work to. For example if we're looking for a centre-half, there's specific attributes that a centre-half needs to have to come and play for this football club."