West Brom urged to keep their focus on the pitch amid takeover links

The Championship kick-off is looming as Carlos Corberan's men make the trip to Blackburn on Saturday week. The head coach has been working to refresh his squad this summer while under financial restriction.

Left-back Townsend, a contender for club captain this season having finished last term with the armband, admitted Albion's squad are well aware of the ownership issues with Guochuan Lai's Yunyi Guokai looking for a full sale of the club, with a loss of parachute payments leaving no funds available.

"In the grand scheme of things, players at the club know what's going on," Townsend said. "It's not as simple as just getting players in. We do need players in.

"I know Mark (Miles) and Pearcey (Ian Pearce) are working hard to get it sorted, but it's not as simple as bringing players in at the minute, it might be that someone leaves.

"There are more politics to it. For us as players, we've got to not pay much attention to it and get ourselves fit and give ourselves the best chance of being in the starting team come August. Hopefully we can bring a few faces in."

Albion were this week linked to a £60million takeover bid from French crypto investor businessman Fred Chesnais with Lai desperate to sell the club. It is understood there remains interest in a purchase of Albion.

This season's Championship looks set to be the strongest in some time with Leicester, Leeds and Southampton all pushing for an instant return. Ambitious League One promotion winners Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday won't settle on making up the numbers. Beaten play-off sides from last season and top-half rivals of Albion are also spending to go one better.

Despite that, experienced Townsend, 30, argues Corberan's starting XI remains one of strongest in the division and is not fussed in the slightest if others do not have them among promotion favourites.

"It's not a great place for the club to be in at the minute, it's obviously struggling a little bit, but in my opinion we have one of the best XIs in the league," Townsend added. "You have to say that our XI would give anyone a game. That mentality, us against the world and sticking together, we can use that to our advantage.

"We have discussed in general what we've got in the dressing room, we know what we can give on a matchday.

"It's all about sticking together and proving everyone wrong. A lot of people might write us off, which is fine. I think for the last two years we've gone in as one of the favourites, and it hasn't worked for us. If people are writing us off, then great – we'll try and use that to prove a few people wrong."