West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis pushing for Mamadou Sakho if £30m Jonny Evans signs for Man City

Tony Pulis - West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis pushing for Mamadou Sakho if £30m Jonny Evans signs for Man City
Tony Pulis, the West Bromwich Albion manager, is hoping to bolster his squad Credit:  PA

Tony Pulis is targeting four more ­signings at West Bromwich Albion as he prepares for the potential £30 million sale of Jonny Evans. Pulis wants to build on Albion’s 100 per cent start, with Liverpool’s Mamadou Sakho and Watford striker Troy Deeney two of the high-profile targets on his list.

Sakho will be West Brom’s top choice if Manchester City sign Evans, while Albion are keeping a close eye on Deeney’s situation after he was again left out of Watford’s starting XI for the home game against Brighton.

Watford have previously quoted £25 million for Deeney, but West Brom believe there could be a chance of agreeing a lower fee. Pulis also wants to sign a box-to-box midfielder, but it is the future of Evans which will determine how much cash is available for the Welshman.

City are expected to table a second offer for Evans in the next few days and the £30 million Albion are demanding will go into Pulis’s budget before Thursday’s deadline. Ahead of Sunday’s game against his former club Stoke, Pulis said: “The big thing will be what we do in the next seven days. Let’s see what we can achieve in respect of bringing players in and then we can sit down and see what we’ve got.

“I think the club still needs a year of two of really putting down foundations. I don’t think it’s there yet. There’s still a hell of a lot to do and hopefully we can. There’s four other positions where we’d like to bring players in.”

Albion have secured three wins in a row this season, while Stoke have suffered three successive defeats at the Hawthorns and there could be fireworks in the technical area again as ­Pulis prepares to face Mark Hughes.

The pair have clashed in past meetings and there was bad blood last season over the £12 million sale of Saido Berahino to Stoke.

Hughes, the Stoke manager, said: “I get emotional and fully engaged in the game. Sometimes you can overstep the mark, and do things that you scratch your head about later on and think, ‘What the hell was I doing there?’

“But that’s how the game gets you and it’s never going to change. If it changes, or if it changes for me and I don’t get that happening to me, it’s probably time to call it a day. But I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.

“We’re in a positive place at the moment and hopefully we can carry that forward at West Brom.”

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