Graham Potter has offered a clear hint that Albion will not be signing the so-called ‘Bissouma replacement’.

He has also appeared to indicate they were forced to react more quickly than was ideal to Marc Cucurella’s departure.

It has looked likely for some time that Albion already had the personnel to operate in midfield after Yves Bissouma’s move to Tottenham.

They could respond similarly to how they did when operating not to buy a replacement after Ben White joined Arsenal last summer.

Cucurella’s departure was less predictable, although Albion moved quickly to bring in Levi Colwill on loan.

It appeared Potter would rather have had a replacement, or new plan, in place well before Cucurella left.

He said: “We try and be a little bit anticipatory rather than reactionary.

“Clearly you are not in the best positions if you are doing that.

“The situation with Marc is slightly different because of the size of the fee and how quickly it escalated.

“But we are in a strong position in terms of the squad.

“We knew about Yves’s situation for quite some time.

“The likes of Caicedo, Mac Allister, Mwepu can fill the spaces that Yves played, obviously not in the same way.

“That’s the challenge. Can they bring their own qualities, their own attributes to the role? I am sure they can.

“And then we have to find a solution as a team to keep moving forward.”

He added: "I don't think it is one player that replaces Yves because I don't think that would be fair on the player that is replacing him.

"Yves is Yves, we'll miss him and wish him well but we have to find a different solution.

"It is not about just plonking one player in and finding Yves Bissouma mark two.

"It is about looking at the lads we've got. Mac Allister, Mwepu and Caicedo didn't play so much last year so they can fill the gap of the games Yves played and they've got to do it in their own way.

"We've got to find a way that with the qualities they bring we can find a solution to that challenge."

Albion have broken with normal procedure in taking Colwill on loan.

They needed to act fast when Cucurella left.

It is not clear whether they will make further additions although Potter has said he is happy with his left-back options.

Asked about the Colwill loan, Potter said: “It’s just a player need that we thought he would help us with.

“It’s a bit of a break from what we normally do but we don’t normally get a world record fee for a player either!

“Sometimes you have to react to things that happen that you don’t really expect.”