Tony Pulis to West Brom: Manager to be handed £15m to strengthen squad after Tim Sherwood talks collapse

Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis will have up to £15m to spend in this month's transfer window at West Bromwich Albion, when the former Crystal Palace manager is appointed as the successor to Alan Irvine at The Hawthorns.

Pulis, 56, was approached by the club after talks broke down with Tim Sherwood over the details proposed by the club in the contract offered to the former Tottenham Hotspur manager. All negotiations with managerial candidates have been carried out by the director of football administration, Richard Garlick.

Pulis is expected to bring his long-term assistant Dave Kemp with him to West Bromwich as well as other members of staff, possibly including Gerry Francis. It is likely that the club's coach Keith Downing, who has served as a caretaker manager twice now, will be moved on. Downing had also been a target of criticism from the club's supporters.

While West Bromwich still operate a technical director structure, with Terry Burton in that role, Pulis is expected to have final say on all transfers.

The budget for the new manager is a reflection of the club's determination to stay in the Premier League. Last season, with the club beginning the month of January in 14th position and four points outside the relegation zone, they did not spend at all in the January transfer window beyond a fee on a loan signing.

Sherwood received a contract proposal from the club's chairman, Jeremy Peace, and Garlick, which is where negotiations between the two parties foundered over details in the proposed agreement, and by this morning those discussions had come to an end.

West Bromwich turned to Pulis, who boasts a record of never having been relegated with any of the clubs he has managed. They play West Ham at the Boleyn Ground, and then Conference Premier side Gateshead in the FA Cup third round at home on Saturday.

Pulis had also been considered for the vacant Newcastle manager's position, following Alan Pardew's departure for Crystal Palace, Pulis's former club, although sources at St James' Park insist he had not been offered the job.

Instead, Steve McClaren has emerged as a front runner for the post. Newcastle have yet to make contact with his current club, Derby County, but they are braced for an approach.

The former England manager is settled and doing very well at Derby, who are chasing promotion from the Championship again after losing out in the last minute of the play-off final to QPR last season. But the lure of immediate access to the top flight and a big club like Newcastle may prove to be too strong.

Pardew's move to Palace has yet be sealed, the remaining stumbling block believed to be a minor detail of one of his backroom staff moving with him from Newcastle.

John Carver will be in temporary charge of Newcastle and has admitted he would like the job on a permanent basis. The 49-year-old, who will be assisted by coach Steve Stone, will take charge for the home game against Burnley. He has managed Toronto in Major League Soccer and had No 2 roles at Plymouth, Leeds, Sheffield United and Newcastle.

"You always have those ambitions, don't you?" he said. "Is it my dream job? Of course it is. I'm a local lad and it's a dream job for anybody."

Steve Bruce, the Hull manager, who had been tipped in some quarters as a candidate to replace Pardew, ruled himself out, saying he was not looking to leave the relegation-threatened Humberside club. Bruce is a boyhood Newcastle fan and said he was "flattered" to be linked with the position but was committed to Hull. "People know I am from Newcastle," Bruce said. "I was a Newcastle supporter as a boy and it has been regurgitated since I was a 22-year-old playing for Norwich and Gillingham. It's very flattering as I'm a Geordie but that's it."

"I have a job to do here and it would be wrong for me to think of anything else other than getting this club out of the position we are in. It would be wrong for the speculation to carry on, for the club, for the supporters, for the players. I am determined to see this through and build on the good work we have done in the last two and a half years. I have had three offers while I have been here and I have turned them all down, so the chairman knows the way I feel."

Ashley and his managing director, Lee Charnley, will draw up a shortlist of potential candidates in time. However, whoever takes the role as head coach will have to work alongside Charnley and chief scout Graham Carr, who will oversee the club's transfer activity within the confines of the club's established investment policy. That model is one which they believe is suited to certain potential managers and not others.

To keep the managerial merry-go-round at full speed, a former Newcastle manager, Chris Hughton, has been appointed as the new manager of relegation-threatened Championship side Brighton after agreeing a three-and-a-half-year deal to replace Sami Hyypia. The 56-year-old had been out of work since leaving Norwich in April. Hughton has Championship pedigree, having led Newcastle to the title in 2009-10 and Birmingham to the play-offs two seasons later.

"I'm thrilled to be back in management and Brighton is a fantastic club, with a first-class infrastructure." Hughton said.