The Premier League bigger guns are playing catch-up with Albion.

Manchester United and 2016 champions Leicester City have now joined the Seagulls by making two senior signings already this summer.

Wolves are up there too- for now at least - after adding £22 million to their recent expenditure, though one of those players was already at Molineux on loan and the other seems to be moving on already.

Huddersfield have also made a loan deal more permanent as well as bringing in a new face.

But the lack of pre-World Cup activity in the top tier at the time of writing is pointing towards a flurry of action towards the new transfer deadline of August 9.

There will be 24 days between the World Cup final and the last day for signings by top-tier clubs in this country.

Not that everybody’s World Cup will finish on July 15, of course.

The final group fixtures are completed 17 days before that on June 28 – coincidentally, also the day Albion’s players report back for pre-season.

But it appears the elite have forgotten the transfer deadline has moved forward from August 31 to the Thursday ahead of the first Premier League weekend.

Or more likely, they have not adjusted, with the World Cup in Russia partly to blame.

The Argus:

As of yesterday afternoon, the 20 Premier League clubs had completed 14 senior signings between them.

Albion were quick to get two under their belts in Leon Balogun, the Nigeria defender who is now at the World Cup, and Romanian striker Florin Andone.

The haste of the Andone deal was no doubt helped by the fact that they had all their pieces lined up at the end of January bar the willingness of the selling cub to do the deal.

When that changed and relegated Deportivo La Coruna could not wait to cash in one of their more prized assets, Albion moved in.

Since then, the Seagulls have been joined on two signings by Manchester United, with the addition of midfielder Fred from Shakhtar and full-back Diogo Dalot from FC Porto.

Leicester are now on two additions thanks to the recruitment of Jonny Evans, the West Brom defender available at a cut-price fee after relegation.

He joins FC Porto full-back Ricardo Pereira in arriving at the King Power.

Wolves have also plundered the new Portuguese champions with a £10 million move for Willy Boly, the French defender who was already on loan.

They have also prepared for their tilt at the top tier by taking striker Benik Afobe from Bournemouth for £12 million. But he is now reportedly on his way to Stoke.

Liverpool looked set to complete a second signing to add to Monaco midfielder Fabinho.

That was until their planned acquisition of Lyon goal-taker and maker Nabil Fekir fell through.

Arsenal have brought in Stephen Lichtsteiner on a free and Crystal Palace have done likewise for Spanish goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.

Huddersfield have acquired goalkeeper Ben Hamer on a free and Watford taken Ben Wilmot from Stevenage. There was also a loan-becomes-permanent deal at Huddersfield for Monaco defender Terence Kongolo, who played for them in the second half of last season.

Similarly, Martin Dubravka, the impressive Slovak goalkeeper already on loan at Newcastle, has made things more permanent on Tyneside.

But transfer market insiders are, if not stunned, then a little taken aback that more activity has not taken place.

One highly experienced such figure told The Argus: “There will be some strange deals pre-World Cup or, most likely, post-World Cup.

“Not many clubs seem to have woken up to this concept that the World Cup will take up a month and, after that, the window is going to close very quickly.

“I can see some real panic going on post-World Cup as people try and make up the time they have lost to the World Cup.”

Not that it is necessarily the club’s fault.

Players heading to Russia will be wary about committing now unless they have a successful tournament which ups their options.

For now, Connor Goldson’s departure to Rangers looks like slipping through that logjam of pending transfer deals, leaving Albion needing two central defenders.

Tim Krul has been speculatively linked with Barcelona in one Catalan daily sports-only newspaper, along with a few other experienced goalkeepers headed by Rui Patricio.

It remains to be seen where he ends up should he decide against accepting Albion’s offer of more time at the Amex.

What we know is that clubs can still sell players until the end of August but must have their incoming business done by the start of the season.

What we don’t know is how they will react to that in this World Cup year. But Albion are as well-placed as anyone in terms of signings.