Albion welcome the Hornets to The Hawthorns this weekend but Deeney is unlikely to start after being shunted down the pecking order by new boss Marco Silva.

The Baggies enjoyed a successful summer in the transfer market but Pulis admitted the one failure was the inability to sign a new number nine.

Deeney was too expensive in the summer, when Watford slapped a £30m price-tag on his head, but Pulis hopes the former Walsall target-man may be cheaper in the next couple of windows.

“We’ve liked Deeney,” confirmed Pulis. “The first couple of years in the Premier League he did exceptionally well for Watford.

"He’s a Watford player so it’s difficult for me to talk – especially playing them – too much about. But yes, I’ve been an admirer from a distance.”

Albion signed six players in the summer, including the versatile Jay Rodriguez, who can play up front or on the left. But Pulis confirmed he is still in the market for an out and out striker.

“We were desperate to bring a No.9 in and that’s the position that we never managed to fill,” he added. “Having said that, we are confident we will score goals if we keep creating chances.

“But there might be someone else out there that we think is better than we’ve got now and we’ll move on that.”

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Deeney has been limited to substitute appearances in the league after Watford spent £18.5million on Andre Gray.

Although he is currently out of favour, Pulis admitted that he could soon become an important player for Silva.

“We’re talking about now but in two weeks time someone might get injured," he said. "Gray might lose some form and then Deeney comes in and scores a few goals.

“Then the window opens and all of a sudden he’s the No.1 striker.

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“It is continuously moving all the time in football and the situation with transfers and recruitment is never solid, there is always a fluctuation in people’s mind on players.”

Albion have scored just four goals so far in the league this season, and only Swansea City and Crystal Palace have netted fewer in the top flight.

But Pulis is confident his team will start finding the net because and as encouraged by the amount of chances they created at Arsenal on Monday and against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.

“That’s been a big disappointment,” said Pulis, when asked about the goal record. “In the last couple of weeks we have created a lot more chances than is necessary to score goals.

"We need to be more clinical. But we’ve been a little bit unfortunate as well and you need that little bit of luck.

“I’m convinced once we get this group together and we find the right system and the best way of playing we’ll create chances and we’ve got players in the team who will score goals.”

Pulis has played Rodriguez up front with Hal Robson-Kanu for the past two games, but hasn’t lost faith in current No.9 Salomon Rondon, despite looking to bolster that area of the pitch come January.

“We’re desperate for Salomon to hit a bit of form again and that will help us enormously,” he said.

“He’s a good player, and when he scores goals and his confidence comes back, he has shown already he is capable of getting goals at this level.”

Walsall are entitled to 20 per cent of any profit Watford make on Deeney after selling him to them for £500,000 in 2010.