ALBION will not go on a crazy spending spree if they reach the Premier League.

Chief executive Paul Barber says making a profit in the top flight is “not a slam dunk” and the club would aim to reimburse part of the £250 million chairman Tony Bloom has spent on the club.

Promotion would be worth around £100 million to the Seagulls – a similar figure to the cumulative losses covered by Bloom while playing in the Championship at the Amex over six seasons.

Barber says Albion would continue to be “smart” in their player recruitment.

He told The Argus: “All it would mean is we are fishing in a bigger pond, because we can afford to fish in a bigger pond. Clearly then some of those players in that pond previously out of reach in the Championship go into your reach.

“We are still going to be as smart as we possibly can to acquire those players at the best possible prices.

“Partly because that is the way we operate, partly because it is the smart thing to do and partly because if we genuinely want to return something to Tony if we are lucky enough to be in the Premier League then we have got to be like that.

“One hundred million is a huge amount of money, but in the world of top level footballers it can disappear really quickly.

“We’ve seen this week Crystal Palace have recorded a loss. Other clubs in the Premier League will record losses from time to time.

“It’s not a slam dunk that because you are in the Premier League you make a profit. You’ve still got to manage the club efficiently, you’ve still got to be prudent in the market, you’ve still got to be tough in your negotiating, you’ve still got to be smart in how you sell players to get the best possible price.

“All the things we have instilled in the club over the last half a decade apply in at least equal measure, if not greater measure, if you step up a level.”

Albion, six points clear of Huddersfield in third with eight games to go for them, nine for the Yorkshiremen, have a parallel project in place for the possibility of missing out on promotion in successive seasons and four of the last five years overall.

“We’d have to go again, do it all over again,” Barber said. “It would clearly be a challenge, for me, for Chris (Hughton), for Tony to pick everyone up again, but we’ve done it once before. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. It would be a clear disappointment, but it would be something we’d just have to get on with.

“Clubs don’t have a right to play at the top level, they have to earn that right, then they have to earn the right to stay there and to stay there again.

“Chris and the players have done an amazing job this season and last and I believe have earned the right to have a crack, but there are many clubs in the division that will feel the same way.

“There are eight games to go - nine for a couple of teams - and this is still the most competitive league I think anywhere in Europe, if not the world.

“There are no guarantees, no people here that are complacent, that think for a second the job is done. We’ve still got a long way to go, there will be more twists and turns.

“There may be more setbacks we have to recover from in the next eight games, more challenges than we can even perceive at the moment.”