West Brom not budging from club transfer policy

The Baggies will make at least three or four signings, says Clarke, but will do so with the same kind of painstaking process that has served the club so well.

West Brom remain in talks with key figures such as Youssouf Mulumbu and Shane Long about improved deals while monitoring a number of long-established targets.

Clarke said: "I think my ideas on the squad are similar now to how they were as the season progressed. I don't think we need radical reshaping of the squad.

"It's a squad that has finished in the top 11 of the Premier League for the last three seasons.

"There are three or four players that won't be here next season that need to be replaced and we have to replace them wisely – but that's normal.

"The club are in discussion with all those players and hopefully we come to a good resolution."

Clarke will, nevertheless, construct his plans in the knowledge that his team's performance over the second half of last season left room for improvement.

He said:"I think the finishing position is great but the over-riding feeling, after the second half of the season, is a little bit of disappointment that we couldn't kick on.

"It lets us know where we are as a club and what we have to do to improve."

But his hunger to maintain West Brom's advance remains, Clarke insists.

He said: "I'm always hungry. I have always been hungry, right from the start of my career. I have always been ambitious, I always want to be successful and I want to do better.

"That's what drives me on. I think the day I wake up and I don't want to be better than yesterday is the day I will stop."