West Bromwich Albion boss Tony Pulis: This is the biggest challenge of my career

But despite five enjoyable months spent playing with his grandchildren and broadening his horizons, Albion's new boss insists he couldn't turn it down.

Since leaving Crystal Palace in dramatic fashion on the eve of the new season, Pulis has thrown himself into family life as well as travelling the world and visiting the battlefields of the First World War.

Yet when Baggies chairman Jeremy Peace came calling this week, Pulis couldn't help but give up his life of education and relaxation in search of his latest football fix.

However, the man who kept Palace up last season despite taking on a team bottom of the table with just four points from 11 games reckons his latest mission is even tougher.

"Everybody had written Palace off so it was backs against the wall and everybody against us so we had that motivation," he said.

"Here we will have to find a different angle, without a doubt, to get the players motivated. But we will do our best. I will do my best and work as hard as it takes and I just hope my best and the players' best is good enough.

"Is it my biggest challenge? Oh yes, because it's such a short period and this has been going on at West Brom for a while now.

"This hasn't just happened, it hasn't just fallen off, this has been going on for a while – since Roy Hodgson left it's dropped off a bit.

"So there's a lot of work to be done and you have to give the chairman a lot of credit because he understands now that that is the situation."

Pulis admits his sleep patterns, which had been regular and comfortable, have already begun to change since he agreed to take charge at The Hawthorns.

And he says he enjoyed his time away from the game, which began when he walked out of Selhurst Park having fallen out with co-chairman Steve Parrish on the back of the rescue act that earned him the title of Premier League manager of the year.

"It has been lovely spending time with my two grandchildren, Grace and Luca – a wonderful experience," said the 56-year-old.

"I've done loads of things. I even went to France with two old blokes – they'll love me for saying that – my old neighbours in Ferndown (near Bournemouth), Rodney who is 82 and the other who is 75.

"We did all the battlefields. We looked at where they played the Christmas truce game and did everything – places I thought I'd never see.

"I've been to America twice, Malaysia – the Premier League is so big over there – I have been to Europe to watch games – Austria v Russia. And I have done a lot of TV and media week.

"But my wife's delighted I will now be out of the house! And I can't say I haven't missed it. I think you do miss it, but I've enjoyed my grandchildren."

In a decade at Stoke over two spells, Pulis moulded the club into an established Premier League force and led them to an FA Cup final before leaving for a second time in 2013.

Yet his methods earned scorn and disapproving comments, not least from Albion fans and journalists who questioned the direct, physical approach and perceived cynicism of the sides who regularly locked horns with and got the better of Tony Mowbray's swashbuckling sides.

In seven months at Palace he went some way towards changing his image as his Eagles side stayed up with a brand of swift, counter-attacking football underpinned by no-nonsense defensive organisation.

And, while he insists the criticism of his techniques is water off a duck's back, he says he will style his Albion team to suit the dynamics of the squad he has inherited.

"Criticism from me is something you have to take," said the former Bournemouth and Plymouth boss.

"We're in an industry where people criticise you and you have to be thick-skinned enough to take that and get on with it and fight.

"There is nothing bigger than winning games. Winning breeds confidence. We need a couple of new faces without a question of a doubt to give the place a lift. We need to get the right ones in and hopefully results will follow and that will breed confidence.

"This is the shortest period of time I've had at any football club to turn results around. That's why I think it will as difficult, if not more difficult, than Palace.

"I had two months at Palace to assess it.

"I knew exactly where we were at Palace after two months. I knew that Joe Ledley, Wayne Hennessey, Scott Dann and Tom Ince would improve things.

"I hope we can get that instant reaction and go on to win games but it will be really tough.

"If you look at the bottom 12 in the Premier League now, it's never been tighter."