Tony Pulis refused to discuss West Bromwich Albion’s bid for Morgan Schneiderlin but confirmed they have made offers for several players.

West Brom have tabled a club-record bid for the Manchester United midfielder, understood to be worth around £18m.

Schneiderlin has played only eight times for United this season having moved from Southampton for £25m in 2015. Everton have also been linked with the France international but Pulis remained tight-lipped over any deal.

“We have made bids for four or five players, we won’t talk about them today. We will talk about them if we get them,” the manager said. “I don’t want to go into it specifically, doing deals and business with people you should deal directly with them. Once they are done you can talk about them more openly. That’s the way I prefer to conduct my business.

“We’ll be spending a bit of money left over from the previous window, then moving on from there. They are very keen to keep the club running financially positively. They feel they can if they manage it properly.”

A move for Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez is likely to be off with the striker set to stay at St Mary’s. The 27-year-old was close to making a summer loan switch to The Hawthorns – with Sunderland, Hull and Watford also interested – and was keen on a move as he was desperate to play.

Charlie Austin is out for up to four months with a shoulder injury and Rodriguez scored twice in Southampton’s 3-1 win at Bournemouth last week.

Pulis said: “We were very interested in the summer, we nearly got a deal done at the beginning of the season. We were very interested until he got those goals against Bournemouth and that’s ended that one.”

West Brom go to Arsenal on Boxing Day and James Morrison is a doubt after being off all week with flu but Jonny Evans could return after missing two games with a calf injury.