Albion goalkeeper signing Niki Mäenpää is ready for a friendly fight with David Stockdale to face the Championship rivals who also wanted him.

The Finland international turned down Nottingham Forest and interest from a host of clubs in the Dutch top-flight to complete a move to the Seagulls, as revealed exclusively in yesterday’s Argus.

Albion coincidentally meet Forest in their opening fixture at the Amex on August 7. Mäenpää will be battling for the gloves with last season’s regular No.1 Stockdale between now and then, under the supervision of new goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts.

Mäenpää, 30, told The Argus: “A couple of weeks ago I found out the opening game in the whole of England is a home game against Nottingham.

“I want to play, I want to get better and I want to do everything I can to get myself in the squad.

“You don’t have to be best friends with anybody but you need to work together and the better you work together you make also each other better.

“I believe in that and I’ve heard from Ben there is a really good team of keepers here. I don’t want to disrupt it, I just want to do my thing and if I can play well and train well I think that will benefit the whole keepers’ union.”

Mäenpää is already used to a tussle for supremacy at international level with Slovak-born Lucas Hradecky from leading Danish club Brondby.

He said: “We have a really good relationship and I think it’s of benefit to us both to have that competition. I think it will also be the same situation here.”

Mäenpää, who has signed for up to two years after three years with VVV-Venlo in Holland, will train for the rest of the week at Albion’s complex in Lancing rather than flying out to the French Alps to join his new team-mates for their training campfollowed by Saturday’s friendly in Geneva against Swiss minnows FC Meyrin (2pm).

Albion, meanwhile, are anticipating a flood of calls from League One and Two clubs keen on borrowing England under-20s goalkeeping prospect Christian Walton.