Graham Rix today joined the race to become Albion's new boss.

The former Arsenal midfielder is keen to re-start his managerial career after being sacked by Portsmouth in March and wants the job vacated by Peter Taylor on Monday.

Rix is on holiday in Cyprus until next week but his agent Alan Goodman said: "Graham will be interested in the Brighton job. He wants to get back into the game and is very ambitious.

"He is settled on the south coast and lives not too far away from Brighton."

Rix started his coaching career at Chelsea where he worked under Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli.

Goodman said: "Graham had a good track record of developing young players with Chelsea. He also showed at Portsmouth that he had an eye for a bargain. Pompey made a £4m profit on Peter Crouch inside a year."

Former Wimbledon manager Terry Burton has already declared his interest in the job, while Albion assistant Bob Booker and director of youth Martin Hinshelwood could also be in the frame.

The applications are already starting to arrive.

Albion chief executive Martin Perry said: "We've had expressions of interest but it is a very important decision and we are not going to rush it.

"We want someone who is going to value the exceptional team spirit that has been built up. That is the most important quality. We want to hold this team together and build on it.

"We are also looking for loyalty and commitment.

"We want someone who can carry on the good work Micky Adams started and Peter Taylor continued.

"That person has to recognise the special qualities of the club. We've got an amazing group of supporters brought together by some hard times who have stuck together and enjoyed the recent run of success.

"The new man will have to work with a realistic budget, not spend money we haven't got. That's the road to ruin.

"We don't want to return to the state we were in five years ago just because we've got in the First Division. £60m has just dropped out of the pot with the ITV Digital situation. It's a wake up call to managers. They have to recognise we live in a different world now."

Read about why Taylor quit plus all the reaction at thisisthealbion.co.uk