Tony Pulis would be willing to work alongside a director of football at West Bromwich Albion as long as guarantees of complete control of the club were included in his contract.

The former Stoke City manager is the joint favourite with Tim Sherwood to succeed Alan Irvine, who was dismissed on Monday after a run of seven defeats in nine matches. The club have spoken to Pulis’s representatives and to Sherwood.

West Brom, who are seeking their fourth manager in just over a year, are one point above the teams in the relegation zone. They are away at West Ham United on New Year’s Day, a game for which Rob Kelly and Keith Downing, the assistant head coaches, are preparing the players. A new appointment is expected before Saturday’s FA Cup home tie against Gateshead.

It is thought Pulis would want assurances on the final say for all transfers, an area of responsibility that became blurred at Crystal Palace after he inspired their escape from relegation last May and led to his departure 48 hours before the start of this season.

This would mean West Brom compromising on the continental structure that has served them with diminishing returns over recent seasons. Terry Burton, appointed the technical director in May, and Richard Garlick, the director of football administration, are in charge of player acquisitions.

Sherwood, who was interviewed for the Hawthorns vacancy in the summer after Pepe Mel’s disastrous brief reign came to an end, may prove an easier appointment for Jeremy Peace and the West Brom board who would be willing to allow their next appointment to bring in his own immediate coaching staff.

West Brom enjoyed success with Dan Ashworth operating as the sporting and technical director alongside Tony Mowbray, Roberto Di Matteo, Roy Hodgson and Steve Clarke. Since Ashworth followed Hodgson to work with the FA 15 months ago, the team’s fortunes have plummeted. Now West Brom need a manager with authority and Ashworth believes Peace will listen to sound advice and does not crave sole control.

Sources close to Pulis have indicated he is not averse to working with Burton, who has a good reputation throughout the game after his years in Arsenal’s coaching structure. Burton also worked with Dave Kemp, Pulis’s long-term assistant, at Wimbledon. Pulis had Gerry Francis on board for two days a week at Stoke and Palace but it is thought he would be willing to continue with the club’s other coaches, certainly in the short term.

Pulis, 56, would not come cheap and he reportedly received a seven-figure bonus for steering Palace to survival after they appeared doomed to the Championship when he arrived in November of last year with one point to their name. Palace, who appear on the verge of appointing Alan Pardew from Newcastle United, felt the absence of Pulis keenly during Neil Warnock’s four months as his successor at Selhurst Park.

Pulis’s reputation has only been enhanced since he left Stoke in May 2013 after establishing them in the Premier League, getting to the FA Cup final and into Europe only for the board to decide they wanted Mark Cartwright as the technical director to oversee transfers.

Pulis had worked closely with a director of football in John Rudge for much of the decade he enjoyed, in two spells, at the Britannia Stadium but always had the final say. It is Pulis’s belief a manager can only be judged on his own players, and Irvine had said in recent weeks how he could only work on the training field with the players at his disposal.

Taken as a season, West Brom’s results over 2014 would mean relegation. Player recruitment has evidently not been good enough, with the £10m acquisition of Ideye Brown representative of last summer’s scattergun approach in which Irvine had next to no say. Peace cannot countenance relegation to the Championship and would consider stepping down. Renowned – or notorious – for his prudent husbandry, keeping the club in the black and refusing to pay inflated transfer fees, his system has frayed at the edges over the 18 months since they announced an annual profit of £6m.

Irvine, who won only four games, was thought to earn around £750,000 a year, and Pulis could command double that. Sherwood, 46, and a success in his short spell in charge at Tottenham Hotspur in the latter half of last season, may come cheaper, though he would want to bring Chris Ramsey in with him. Les Ferdinand is happy as the director of football operations at Queens Park Rangers and would not be part of Sherwood’s coaching team.

West Brom fans were aghast at the club’s low-key appointment in the summer after Clarke and Mel’s short spells. Whether they would celebrate the arrival of Pulis, with a proven track record but a reputation for a more pragmatic style of football, is a moot point.

Other contenders such as Chris Hughton and Dave Jones have not been discounted by Albion sources.