Alan Mullery was taken aback as he walked through one of the lounges at the Amex, pressing flesh and conversing with fans in his role as Albion's ambassador.

"I said to a guy 'We're really playing well, I'm looking forward to the Premier League.'

"He said 'No, I'm quite satisfied with 28,000 people watching the Championship.' I couldn't believe it.

"The pot of gold is in the Premier League. Instead of having, no disrespect to them, Bristol City, we can have Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United.

"Against all these teams you could fill the place and another 20,000 seats as well if you had them. I couldn't understand it. Football is about winning. I could have strangled him!"

Mullery recounts the story with passion oozing from every syllable.

He is a septuagenerian now but the fire in his belly when he represented club or country and guided Albion into the top flight still burns fiercely as he discusses the possibility of Chris Hughton's team emulating his heroes of 1978-79.

"With that impetus now, everybody in the squad wants to play," he said. "I'm excited, I can feel it now. I wouldn't mind getting my boots on and going out to play, that's how I feel about it.

"I'm sure if Chris can get that into the players then we are going to do something really special."

Believers in fate will be lapping up the symmetry, Albion steered to glory by one Spurs legend, now in the care of another.

"Chris was a good full-back," Mullery said. "He was quick, a very decent player. He won lots of caps with Ireland.

"He's had his ups and downs in management but he's done marvellously here. He's been there, worn the T-shirt. He knows what this league is like. It's very difficult to get out of.

 

"We've had a wonderful season but it hasn't finished yet. We've still got some tough games.

"The irony is we had to go to Newcastle in our last game and now we have to go to Middlesbrough, two clubs in the North-East, so after all those years it's a similar scenario.

"The dream came true for me. I just hope it does for Chris as well."

When Mullery watches Albion now he is reminded of the tight-knit dressing room he had 37 years ago, laced with quality.

"We had a terrific set of lads, good players, a lot of them internationals," he said. "I bought Mark Lawrenson for 100 grand and he'd already played for Ireland. I wanted him to play for England, because he's as English as I am.

"It's a similar scenario, we've now got a group of players who believe in themselves.

"My team talk at Newcastle I never said a word to them. I just said 'Go out and play'. We'd watched them on the Wednesday night and they beat Bristol Rovers 5-0.

"I didn't have to give a team talk. It was just a case of go out and do what you've got to do, if we win the game we go up.

"The Newcastle fans were cheering us as well, because they didn't want Sunderland to go up. Now those two could come down from the Premier League this season. Year after year the Championship is getting harder."

Hughton does not have the benefit of a goalscorer as prolific as Peter Ward, although Tomer Hemed is doing his bit with 16.

In other areas of the squad, memories are revived for Mullery of his driving force Brian Horton, goalkeeper Eric Steele, left-winger Peter O'Sullivan.

He said: "Dale Stephens has had a very good season and he could play in the Premier League, no problem at all. David Stockdale's had a very good season as well. Kayal is very good. The two midfield players have been exceptional.

"We've lacked an out-and-out goalscorer who can get you 20 goals but Bobby Zamora has come to the rescue a few times and the goals have been shared around.

"I think we've missed Solly March as well, because he was just coming good. I love seeing left-footers. We've had some very good left-footed players here. He could be one in the future.

"You've got to pray that as many of your players as possible stay fit. We won't see Solly until next season. A lot of people want to play but you've got to keep picking your best side.

"I'm just looking forward to the next three games and hoping we win every one of them."

Tomorrow at Charlton - another of the clubs Mullery managed - the side will include a Spaniard, a Czech and a Frenchman.

The landscape was different in 1979. British players ruled but, once Albion were up, there was another coincidence for disciples of deja vu to cling to, albeit a rather less auspicious version of Hemed and Kayal.

"We had two Israelis when I was here (left-back Jacob Cohen and attacking midfielder Moshe Gariani)," said Mullery. "One of them wasn't bad, the other one wasn't as good as I would have liked.

"They loved it and at that time that was something special, to get two foreign players to come and play for your club.

"Now, throughout the Premier League and Championship, foreign players are here and they are doing a good job.

"There are some fantastic players and I would say the Championship is the most difficult league to get out of.

"Each year, the three that come down, you are battling against the money they get in parachute parachute payments."

All the more reason then for the Seagulls to take flight into the top flight for only the second time in their history under the wing of chairman Tony Bloom, grandson of the vice-chairman in Mullery's golden era Harry Bloom.

"He would absolutely love this (the Amex)," Mullery said. "He wouldn't move out of it.

"He told me 'If we were to go to the First Division I'd die a very happy man'. A few months later we went up.

"Then we were on our way to Stoke (October 1980) and he dropped dead next to me on the coach. We achieved what we set out to achieve and Harry saw it.

"Now, if he saw this he would say: 'I started it'. Him and Mike (Bamber, chairman) and the rest of the directors."

With that Mullery was off, to shake more hands, talk with more supporters about the team's fortunes and wish that the managerial club he currently occupies in isolation is about to double in size.