The Baggies are on the hunt for a new boss after chairman John Williams sacked Tony Pulis by phone yesterday morning following a catastrophic run of two wins in 21 league games.

Williams has already started the search for a replacement and would ideally like to employ a manager with experience of coaching in the Premier League.

That would rule out McInnes, who is currently in charge of Aberdeen, but it’s understood the former captain would listen to offers from the club he spent three years at as a player.

The ambitious 46-year-old is keen for a crack at the Premier League after hitting a glass ceiling with the Dons following three successive second-placed finishes behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.

He has been a heavy favourite for the vacant Rangers job for the past three weeks but is yet to take up the position.

However, Albion’s top brass are keen for their new man to have top-tier experience with the team now sitting so precariously in 17th, just one point above the bottom three.

And Aberdeen's chairman Stewart Milne says his club has received no offers from either Albion or Rangers to take McInnes.

"We've had no requests from anyone to speak to Derek," said Milne. "I don't want to speculate on any hypothetical situations and we will deal with situations if and when they arise but other than that I wouldn't want to say anymore.

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"You wouldn't expect me to say anything other than if there is an offer for Derek we'll work as hard as we can to convince him there's still a job to be done at Aberdeen ."

Pulis was sacked because results had fallen off a cliff on a run of four defeats in a row and 11 games without a win.

Baggies chairman John Williams said: "These decisions are never taken lightly but always in the interests of the club.

"We are in a results business and over the back end of last season and this season to date, ours have been very disappointing.

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"We would like to place on record our appreciation of Tony's contribution and hard work during a period of transition for the club which included a change of ownership. We wish him well in his future endeavours."

Assistant head coach and former manager Gary Megson has been put in charge of first-team affairs until further notice and is due to take training on Tuesday when the players – who were given Monday off – return to work.

The rest of the coaching staff also remain in situ until further notice.

Williams is now actively searching for a new head coach and has a prior working relationship with Sam Allardyce, one of the early favourites for the role.

He employed Allardyce at Blackburn Rovers and stepped down as executive chairman in 2011 two months after being forced to fire him by the Venky’s – who owned the club.

The former England manager was in talks with Everton before the Toffees moved on to Watford boss Marco Silva, but it is not yet clear if Allardyce would be interested in the Albion job.

Former Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew is reportedly keen to join the Baggies, as is Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill, but the Baggies board are not convinced by O'Neill and are looking elsewhere for now.