Ron Gourlay working to install 'football board' at West Brom

The former Manchester United, Chelsea and Reading official was named the Baggies’ new chief executive last month.

Gourlay, who prior to becoming CEO was employed as a consultant to owner Guochuan Lai, has been undertaking a review of all areas of the football club.

But transfer strategy – and identifying players – is one area where he believes big change is needed.

In previous years, Albion have relied on their head coach and technical director to identity transfer targets and bring them into the club.

But Gourlay believes those decisions should be made by committee instead of just two individuals.

His new ‘football board’ comprises of himself, the manager, medical, financial and administrative experts as well as members of the recruitment team.

While Gourlay confirmed the club is likely to appoint a ‘head of football operations.’

That role will be similar to a sporting and technical director and will primarily involve identifying players.

But instead of that individual then having the power to sign that player, any potential additional will have to be agreed by the football board.

“We have introduced a football board which is basically a decision-making process for new players coming in,” Gourlay said in a meeting with the local Press.

“That gives us a bit more control of the ins and outs, the targeting of players and recruitment.

“There is a need for a head of football operations and it’s how we define that and what that role is.

“We can’t have it that we just have one or two people at the football club making decisions at that level.

“We have got to get a mixture of recruitment, medical, secretarial, administration, the football side and financial all having a say to make sure we bring in the right players going forward.

“We have made mistakes in the past and we are paying for that at the present time.”

Gourlay believes it is imperative Albion find the right person for the ‘head of football operations’ role.

“We’ve got to get the right person with the right experience and that person is probably already at another club and hard to get out,” he continued.

“Otherwise you get the wrong person.

“But will there be one in the future? Probably, yes.

“But the controls they have will not be as wide as we’ve had in the past.

“They will be more controlled by a group.

“It’s a different type of model. It’s out there and it’s very successful.”

One area of recruitment Albion desperately need to improve is identifying players overseas.

Other Championship sides have been very successful at identifying players on the continent with Swansea’s addition of Joel Piroe from PSV last summer and Preston North End’s capture of Emil Riis Jakobsen from Danish side Randers two examples.

Albion previously had a network of international scouts.

But they moved away from that model during Tony Pulis’s time as head coach.

And Gourlay says finding talent abroad is something the club has to get back to.

“We certainly need to strengthen the scouting network – there’s no doubt about it,” the chief executive continued.

“We’ve already discussed that with Ian (Head of Recruitment Ian Pearce) and we are already looking at the whole structure, having more international reach.

“We’ve been home-based if I’m honest, so we’re looking at that and trying to address that very quickly.

“Scouting is an area where we need to invest in. We need to strengthen the recruitment process.”