Albion will not be buying many players next season if they are still in the Championship, boss Gus Poyet has warned.

He says it is an “absolute nightmare” trying to sort out player contracts and potential new signings, due to Financial Fair Play rules and uncertainty about which league the promotion-chasing Seagulls will be playing in.

Chairman Tony Bloom is back from his winter break in Australia but most of the players out of contract this summer will have to wait for decisions on their futures. The list includes Vicente, David, Adam El-Abd and Gary Dicker.

Poyet told The Argus: “We decided to wait a little bit. The players knew that from a long time ago. Of course, everybody is individual. The majority will need to wait.

“Next year everything changes. The circumstances are going to be really unique with the Financial Fair Play. Everything has to be so by the book and careful. We need to put the players in the right places with the right numbers and the right money.

“The other thing is the division. We have been looking for a while at the quantity of players and now we are getting to the point where you really need to intensify the decision-making in terms of who you will take out.

“In normal circumstances you will know but now, in the situation we are in, we are still not looking for big transfers because it doesn’t look like we are going to have enough money to buy many players in the Championship.

“Of course, you will have plenty if you are in the Premiership. It’s an absolute nightmare, practically impossible.

“Everything changes then, because you have to buy, to spend. The income is massive but during that time you need to be realistic as well about how difficult it is.”

Poyet’s scouts are in the process of drawing up a list of transfer targets if Albion are still in the Championship, another list if they are promoted to the Premier League.

He said: “It's very, very difficult. Imagine, you could have a player from the Premiership coming to you for free to play in the Premiership or from the Championship to play for you in the Championship.

“If you look at the players now you will like the Premiership one. You get excited about him and then you need to get the Championship one and then he looks worse, even though he is a good player.”