Albion's last manager in the Championship believes Gus Poyet can deliver Premier League football to the Seagulls.

Mark McGhee admires Poyet’s enthusiasm and reckons Albion are equipped to follow Reading, another of his former clubs, into the top-flight now they are at The Amex.

The Scot told The Argus: “I’ve met Gus a couple of times through Hans Segers (Fulham and ex-Spurs goalkeeping coach), playing golf, and he is such an enthusiast.

“Even playing golf with him, if you hit a rubbish shot he would convince you it was a good shot. I thought that would be brilliant in the dressing room and I am sure that is what is happening here at the moment.

“I’ve witnessed what happened at Reading and Brighton have an opportunity to go to the next stage, there’s no doubt about that. The stadium and the way they have built it is absolutely fabulous.”

McGhee guided Albion to promotion from League One via the play-offs, then managed them for two seasons in the Championship before they were relegated in 2006.

Former chairman Dick Knight sacked him a few months later but ex-Motherwell and Aberdeen chief McGhee, now scouting for the Scottish FA, has no axe to grind with the club. He still lives near Withdean, Albion’s former home, and has vowed to ensure his two-and-a-half year old son Archie becomes a Seagulls supporter.

McGhee said: “I think the club would have failed a long time ago had it not been for Dick putting up the fight he did for the stadium. Things had to be sacrificed along the way, including the players we sold, to finance getting over the finishing line with the planning consent.

“There has been a lot of sacrifice. The supporters who have sat out in the rain and other people around the club deserve a shot at the big time with the new stadium and I think it will come.

“I stayed on the basis I thought I was looking at a long term scenario, regardless almost of results. That turned out not to be true, so that was disappointing, and I look on with envious eyes but I am certainly fully behind Gus and his team.

“We live in the town and eventually I will be getting Archie a season ticket, because he is a Brighton boy now and it will be his team. Eventually he will be going to games. Perhaps he’ll play for them one day!”