West Bromwich Albion held talks -yesterday with Tim Sherwood and Tony Pulis about succeeding Alan Irvine as manager.
Albion held a board meeting on Monday evening at which the decision to sack Irvine was ratified and a strategy was drawn up to appoint his replacement.
The club made contact with Pulis's representatives late on Monday and discussions continued yesterday. They have also contacted Sherwood and his advisers, and plan to hold further talks with them.
Pulis has stressed that he would only take the job if he had the final say on transfers and if money was made avail-able to sign players next month.
Albion have recently employed a policy of 'topping-up' in the January transfer window, eschewing multi-million-pound signings in favour of loans. However, Pulis believes that -Premier League survival hinges on business being done during the transfer window next month.
Jeremy Peace, the West Brom chairman, is being assisted by the club's technical director, Terry Burton, in making the appointment.
Pulis has never been relegated as a manager, a record he maintained in spectacular fashion during a short spell at Crystal Palace last season. However, his tenure at Selhurst Park ended on the eve of the new campaign when the Welshman became disillusioned at the club's failure to sign players including Steven Caulker, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jonjo Shelvey.
Sherwood, the former head coach at Tottenham Hotspur, had extended talks with Peace before Irvine's appointment in the summer, and the pair came close to agreeing a deal which would have given him the manager's job.
Negotiations this time may be made simpler - and cheaper for West Brom - because Sherwood is no longer seeking to bring Les Ferdinand with him. Ferdinand has since taken a senior role at Queens Park Rangers.
Irvine's assistants, Keith Downing, Rob Kelly and Dean Kiely, are all likely to follow him out of the club, with the board believing a clean sweep is required.