The Baggies have made enquiries about temporary deals for both strikers until the end of the season, with Ings's salary likely to be the most affordable.

But the Anfield club, who host Albion in the FA Cup fourth round next weekend, have not been willing to sanction a deal so far.

Baggies boss Alan Pardew is limited to loan deals unless he sells Jonny Evans for big bucks but yesterday, he admitted there had still been no bid for his skipper.

He called Arsenal about Theo Walcott, who could make his Everton debut against the Baggies this weekend following a £20million move, but Albion had to pull out when it became clear the Gunners wanted to sell rather than loan.

"Sometimes in the Premier League there are scenarios where you can loan and do the transfer in the summer," said Pardew. "It can help the FIFA (fair play) rules and everything else.

"With players like Theo is it a straight deal or some which could be a loan and a deal in the summer?

"Did we discuss Theo? Yeah, we did, but it was pretty evident after a few phone calls that it wasn’t going to be the case."

Albion are lining up potential signings should a suitable bid from Manchester City or Arsenal come in for Evans.

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Egyptian defender Ali Gabr is set to join on loan from Zamalek in order to replace Evans at the back and free up funds for an attacker, but if the Northern Irishman isn't sold, Gabr will not be signed.

Troy Deeney is an expensive attackers the Baggies are interested in, but is currently out of their reach.

"On the transfer front we're making enquiries on a number of players," said Pardew. "I think it's well documented that we don't really have any finance to do anything regarding a player of that stature (Deeney) unless there's a transfer out. At the moment, there isn't."

However, the deals the Baggies do have in place will not last forever and Pardew admitted the clock was running down.

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"We have scenarios that are going to time out if we don't get a bid for Jonny that's acceptable for Jonny and for us," he said.

Albion have also joined the hunt for highly-rated 18-year-old Stevenage defender Ben Wilmot, who is also interesting Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal.

However, attacking midfielder Tom Cairney is unlikely to join the Baggies this window – even if Evans is sold – after stating he was happy at Fulham.