Aaron Hughes hopes his move to Albion can help him join the Premier League's elite 500 club.

The Northern Ireland veteran has made 455 top flight appearances for Newcastle, Aston Villa and Fulham.

Ten players have topped 500 outings. Hughes believes his move to Albion after dropping into the Championship with QPR at the back end of last season can get him back to the highest level.

The 34-year-old centre-half, Sami Hyypia's first signing, said: "This is a club that is set up to get into the Premier League, it has the players to do it and they have come close the last couple of years.

"With the manager here, who has impressed in Germany, I just get the feel it is going to be a good year for the club and I thought I would like to be a part of something.

"I was out of contract at QPR so I was a free agent and waiting to see what came up and this did, and it was a good opportunity for me to get back in playing football.

"I had a couple of things on the table and I was having a good think about what direction I wanted to go in at this stage of my career, being a little bit older now and more experienced.

"I just had to get a feel for what I wanted to do and I would love to get back into the Premier League again and I saw this as an opportunity to do that, and not only go up but stay up."

Jamie Carragher (508), Phil Neville (505) and Sol Campbell (503) are the only defenders with more appearances in the Premier League than Hughes. Ryan Giggs (632) heads the overall list.