West Brom boss Tony Pulis says their deal for former RB Leipzig winger Oliver Burke was months in the making.

Pulis swooped for Burke at the start of the week and secured his signature ahead of former club Crystal Palace, who were also interested.

But as the head coach explained, he had been watching Burke for some time. The Baggies were interested last summer when Nottingham Forest sold their academy star to RB Leipzig, the highest bidder who offered £13m.

This summer, Pulis first spoke to Leipzig sporting director Ralf Rangnick at the Premier League Asia Trophy in pre-season.

“I spoke to Ralf when we were in Hong Kong, that's how far ago it started," revealed Pulis to the Express & Star. “It takes time to get everything in place and I didn't know whether there were other clubs involved or not.

“I had a good chat with Ralf, who is the main man at Leipzig, and went through everything - what the expected on figures and what he thought about the lad.

“Ralf is a very honest, genuine person. Then I spoke to him again and texted him and we were looking at how we could do the deal and how we couldn't do the deal.

“And it's gradually got closer to the point where we said we'd do it and the kid said he wanted to come to us."