West Brom's Slaven Bilic: I want to add quality
Albion head coach Slaven Bilic says Albion are targeting "quality" additions this month.
The Express & Star understands Bilic would like to bolster his forward options with two players before next Friday's deadline – with the boss having initially drawn up a shortlist of attacking players which has now been reduced to just three names.
Croatian international Mislav Orsic – who plays for Dynamo Zagreb – is understood to be Albion's primary target with the 27-year-old having already scored 17 goals this season.
Bilic says it is hard to do business in January with clubs reluctant to let their best players go, while players that are available tend to have not played a lot of football in recent months.
The Croatian head coach, though, insists the players he is targeting are quality and represent very little risk.
"“We are trying because every team needs something," the head coach said when asked how transfers are progressing.
"We are not desperate, we'd like a couple of good players.
“We are working on them. There are a few days left and we are trying to get them. It’s not easy, as you all know, everyone is trying to add a bit of quality.
“It’s very difficult to take good quality players now in January because nobody wants to lose them.
“It’s a little bit about gambling. Gambling doesn’t mean they are quality, gambling can also mean bringing the player from a foreign country. There’s no pre-season, you just have to throw him in the arena.
“And then some of the players need at least a few days to get to know the squad, the team, blah blah blah, not to mention the characteristics of the league and all that. That’s one gamble.
“The other gamble is if you’re talking about players in your league or the league above and you want to bring them then normally you will get players who didn’t play in the last six months.
“It is a bit of a gamble but we are trying to get a couple of players who are really good. There is no gamble in them, they are quality and that’s why we are trying to get them.
“We don’t need quantity. We don’t need just a number, we want quality.
