West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Clarke is happy with their scouting network.

Clarke admits top-flight rivals will be casting their net further and wider, he insists success in finding the right players is more down to the quality of the scouting and research.

"I don't think it is any more difficult than it was before," he told the WBA website.

"The secret is not looking in different places; the secret is finding the right player. It doesn't matter where you look. Sometimes they're under your nose and sometimes they are a little bit further away.

"But the secret is always to find the right player and, I think, by and large, with the boys we got in last season, we found the right players.

"Different players do well at different clubs. Some transfers work, some don't. A case in point here would be [Yassine] El Ghanassy.

"It didn't work out for him.

"He's gone back to Holland and has done very well during the second half of the season.

"Some players fit to a club and some don't - that's football."