West Brom chairman John Williams wants two or three new players in summer

Speaking to the press for the first time since his arrival more than six months ago, Williams outlined his vision for the future.

Focused on evolution rather than revolution, the former Blackburn Rovers chairman said too many clubs attempted wholesale changes to their squads in short spaces of time.

"We will acquire two or three players," he confirmed. "Fans sometimes have different views to what does and doesn't make a good transfer window.

"You've always got to be cautious about too many new faces in the dressing room.

"The pavement is littered with clubs that – in my opinion – have bought too many players in each window.

"If you can add two or three players in a window, the fact is, in every three windows you effectively change your team.

"That's the way teams evolve, rather than striving for revolution around the corner."

Williams does not want to unnecessarily break up a squad that is flourishing this season and currently on course to break the club's record Premier League points tally.

He recognises the need to strengthen, but warned that the higher up the table you climb, the more difficult it gets to buy better players.

"We always want to improve," he said. "If you finish in the top 10 you want to stay in the top 10 and gradually improve your position in the top 10. Each year we will try to do exactly that.

"But of course it gets harder. The better your squad gets the harder it gets to find people that move your squad forward.

"Nobody comes in with a guarantee of starting , that's not how football works - but if we can add two or three we would be well placed for the next campaign."

Williams was installed as chairman at the start of August when it was announced outgoing chairman Jeremy Peace had sold his majority stake in the club to Chinese entrepreneur, Guochuan Lai.

Lai remains in Shanghai for the majority of the year, and although he has a representative on the board, he leaves the day-to-day running of the club to Williams.

"I'm happy with that role," said the chairman. "Mr Lai and our Chinese investors are very pleased to be observing from a distance. That gives us plenty of freedom here. I have to say they've been fantastic owners.

"They would be the first to admit they don't understand all the nuances of running a football club and their idea was to have people who can help them do that.

"I hope we're living up to our part of the bargain and they're living up to theirs. It's not a question of giving us a free hand – why would we want that?

"I want to communicate to them when there are key issues, but their support has been along the lines of 'you're the guys that know what you're doing'. You can't really wish for more than that."

Williams spent more than a decade as Blackburn chairman, a period they spent the majority of in the top tier.

"It's a return to the cut and thrust of the Premier League for me," he said. "It corresponded with a change of ownership in the club and putting those things together is always going to be an interesting time that is hopefully not too turbulent.

"As we sit here with two-thirds of the season under our belt things are going ok so, so far, so good."

Read more from John Williams in the Express & Star tomorrow and next week.