Paul Trollope has been hailed as the perfect No.2 for Albion – not just for this season but next season as well.

His Brighton-born managerial mentor Lennie Lawrence expects Chris Hughton and Trollope to steer the Seagulls to promotion now they are back together.

Lawrence says his home city club will then have a strong partnership in place for the Premier League.

Trollope was confirmed as Hughton’s assistant yesterday, replacing Colin Calderwood following the Scot’s surprise switch to Aston Villa.

Lawrence was director of football at Bristol Rovers when Trollope had a successful spell in charge.

The 44-year-old worked with Hughton at Birmingham and Norwich and is back alongside him after stints as Cardiff manager and Wales coach under Chris Coleman.

Lawrence told The Argus: “He has landed in exactly the right place, both for him and for Brighton as well, because of his coaching ability and also because he has a manager who he knows very well, who is highly competent and experienced.

“I am not just thinking about now. I fancy Brighton strongly. I think they will get up and when they get into the Premier League they are not going to look around and think ‘What do we do now?’ “Chris has been there before and Paul has worked with top players, international players, successfully and he has been in the Premier League with Chris before so they will have a good idea exactly where they are.

“You look at Brighton and the recruitment has been pretty good over recent times. I am sure that will continue and in terms of the coaching with the pair of them they will be as good as anybody. Paul is very good on the training field.”

Lawrence, a member of the elite club of managers to have taken charge of more than 1,000 matches, recommended Trollope when he first joined forces with Hughton.

He said: “I remember speaking to Chris about him when he went to Birmingham. I said he needs to be in a three-man management team in the Championship, with the emphasis on day-to-day coaching.

“That worked out very well at Birmingham and they got in the play-offs.”

Trollope has also been reunited at the Amex with first team coach Paul Nevin, part of Hughton’s backroom team at Norwich.