They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness. It might also be the first sign of genius.

Either way, no one of an Albion persuasion was complaining when Dale Stephens walked down West Street on the evening of Easter Monday singing: “Dale Stephens, we want you to stay.”

Seagulls fans were certainly not crazy about the idea of him leaving and made their feelings about his new four-year deal clear at the promotion parade on Sunday.

They did likewise for David Stockdale, the out-of-contract goalkeeper whose future seems to be in the air.

That fans want those two key members of the promotion squad to stay is quite right and understandable.

But perhaps the biggest surprise from Sunday was the lack of any audible “we want you to stay” message for Steve Sidwell.

Could that be because it appears to be more or less taken as read that he will do exactly that?

This time last year, Sidwell was just finishing his loan stint with the Seagulls. After play-off exit to Sheffield Wednesday, he spoke like a man who fully expected to be sticking around.

A year on, his contract is up but, again, he seems confident he will stay.

In an interview conducted on Sunday and reproduced on the club’s own website, he said: “You come in every day trying to play at the top level and now we get the chance to play on the best stage in the world.

“I’ve experienced it all before but, when you go to these big stadiums, you look at other players and their eyes light up straight away.

“It brings back some nice memories from when I was younger.

“The lads will go away now and have their holidays, they’ll relax with their families, but then pre-season will come around and we’ll go again.

“Hopefully we can do well, give a good account of ourselves and you never know what can happen next season.”

Not much doubt there about where he expects to be.

That could be handy because there is not much experience of the Premier League among the Albion squad as it stands.

Sidwell would lead that list with exactly 200 Premier appearances, of which 153 were starts, for a combination of Reading, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Fulham and, briefly, Stoke City, scoring 21 goals in the process.

However, he has not been a regular in the top flight since 2013-14, when he started 34 games for the Cottagers as they headed to relegation and enjoyed his most prolific top-flight season with seven goals.

Five starts and seven games off the bench for Stoke followed in 2014-15 and just one sub appearance the next season before going on loan to Albion midway through the campaign.

The Argus:

Liam Rosenior was just completing an ever-present top-flight season with Fulham ten years ago. Rosenior has 118 top flight starts, 20 games off the bench and one goal to his credit.

Glenn Murray totalled 20 starts and 32 games off the bench for Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, with 11 Premier League goals.

Anthony Knockaert made three starts and got off the bench six times for Leicester and Shane Duffy had five appearances for Everton, of which three were off the bench.

Spread the net to cover the top European divisions and the picture changes.

Bruno is set to make his Premier League entrance at the age of 36 and ten months, still a full year younger than the oldest outfield Premier League debutant, Graham Alexander of Burnley.

But he played 138 top-flight games in Spain, of which 121 were starts, for Almeria and then Valencia.

Tomer Hemed had 72 starts and 29 games off the bench in the same league, split between Mallorca and Almeria and producing 26 goals.

Uwe Huenemeier made his top-flight Bundesliga bow in the run-up to Christmas, 2005. He was at centre-back as Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich.

It was one of only two starts the Albion No.4 made for Dortmund. But, as skipper, he started 32 first tier matches for Paderborn in 2014-15, scoring twice.

Pascal Gross will soon add his own Bundesliga experience to midfield.

Stockdale played in 39 Premier League games for Fulham.

“There are not many who have been there,” Brighton-born Norwich skipper Russell Martin said when offering The Argus the benefit of his considerable Premier League experience.

“But Chris (Hughton) has managed and coached in the league, he has been around it for years. He will know what to expect.”

The fact Sidwell will too, allied to his performances when required last season, means the first sign of madness, on both sides, might be not extending his affiliation with Albion through to next season.