Shilen Patel has revealed exactly what West Brom are looking for in the market
James Morrison's first summer transfer window in management has started with a bang.
Jed Wallace, Daryl Dike and Joe Wildsmith are all leaving The Hawthorns when their contracts expire at the end of June, while Josh Griffiths has been sold on a permanent basis to Stoke City.
Goalkeeper Matt Ingram and defender Carter Pinnington have both arrived on free transfers from Oxford United and Liverpool, respectively, while West Brom have also shelled out £1.3million on signing striker Barney Stewart from Falkirk and a further £4m on bagging Jimmy-Jay Morgan from Chelsea.
However, in an open letter to fans at the back-end of last week, chairman and owner Shilen Patel promised that's not all to come from the Baggies this summer.
While the Albion chief predicts it to be a record-breaking summer elsewhere (he's already right with Manchester City agreeing a blockbuster £116m fee for Elliot Anderson), he's suggested that it won't all be about big fees and marquee arrivals at The Hawthorns in the coming weeks.
He's made it clear that he doesn't want to spend big on recruitment fees - he wants recruiting smarter.
Why West Brom are focusing on profile rather than price this summer
West Brom's financial constraints have been well documented throughout the entirety of Bilkul WBA's tenure at The Hawthorns.
They inherited a mess of a club from the Chinese, a mess that "shocked" from Baggies chief executive Mark Jenkins.
It meant that the last few transfer windows were all about staying in line with the EFL's Profit & Sustainability rules, which understandably led to a reduction in squad quality at the historic Black Country club.
But Patel seems to understand that spending smaller fees doesn't have to result in buying worser-qualty players.
"Our core strategy remains the same as when I arrived," said Patel in an open letter to fans on Friday. "We aim to build a squad of dynamic, hard-working, and well-coached players with an emphasis on talent we believe will grow in their time with us.
"I predict we will again see spending records broken across football this summer. I also predict that in the Championship we will once again see examples of conscientious team building prevailing over big spending.
"When we look at our most successful recruitment, there are clear commonalities and they have nothing to do with how much we spent to bring the player here."
Patel has also outlined the exact characteristics Albion are looking for as they continue building Morrison’s squad.
The key traits James Morrison wants in every new West Brom signing
This is Morrison's first summer as a manager, but it's expected that technical director Dominic Price and director of football operations Ian Pearce will head up the recruitment drive in the coming weeks.
However, that doesn't mean that they won't be communicating with Morrison throughout the summer and allowing the former Baggies midfielder to sign off on arrivals he'd like to see join his squad.
And, according to Patel, the signings that Morrison wants reflect how he was as a player himself during his decade-long spell at The Hawthorns.
He wants players who are multi-dimensional - not just someone who can be physical or can be technical. It's also a must that they're hard-working, which is the kind of thing you'd expect from someoen who spent a good chunk of his career playing for Tony Pulis.
There's also got to be room to improve for these players and the arrivals of Stewart, Morgan and Pinnington are good examples of this happening already.
Albion are also crying out for players who not only fit Morrison's tactical design, but also ones that are ready to play for the shirt and fight until the very last - more Jayson Molumby and less Oli Burke.