TONY Mowbray admits he will be using Euro 2008 to watch some of Albion's transfer targets showcase their talents.
The Baggies boss is still hoping to snap up any emerging talent before the 16 national teams kick a ball in Austria and Switzerland next month and get a head start on the Baggies' rivals.
But he insists he will not gamble on making any signings without casting his eye over the players first.
"We have some targets who will be playing for their countries so we will be covering Euro 2008 without blanket coverage because we don't have the resources for that," said Mowbray.
"We can target specific games and watch specific players but the problem is the rest of the world is watching.
"We might like a player but if he has a particularly good tournament everybody else becomes aware of him and his price goes up.
"The trick is to try to identify them before tournaments and get them signed before they hit the rest of the world.
"But, as I've said, while they might have been identified and been on our lists I haven't seen them and if we're going to spend money on them that's too much of a gamble."
Mowbray revealed it was difficult for him to watch players during the Baggies' hectic Championship run-in.
And he admits the recruiting process may not get into full swing until the players return for pre-season training on July 3.
"We know what we've got and we know the areas where we want to help the team and add strength in depth to the squad," he added.
"There is always a question of when you actually make moves for players that you like.
"We've been preparing for it for a while so we do already have targets.
"The season is finishing in most countries in Europe so it's not as if we can watch lots of games for the next two months because there aren't many teams playing.
"You need to have already done the work but it's only been in the last six to eight weeks that we have implemented a real European scouting network watching lots of games.
"The other problem has been that I've been involved in lots of games over the last couple of months and haven't had the opportunity to watch these players myself.
"We find ourselves in a situation where I'm not anticipating floods of players coming in now because I probably haven't seen them as we've been playing every three days for the last couple of months.
"We do have some targets but it might be that pre-season will get underway and we will be looking at who is involved in squads, who is playing and then making phone calls to managers to see what their thoughts are."
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