Albion boss Gus Poyet wants to keep Steve Harper until January – just as he intended.

The on-loan Newcastle goalkeeper’s loan runs out with the Seagulls’ return to action at Championship leaders Southampton on Saturday week.

Poyet, pictured, thought he had landed Harper until the New Year when the original deal was set up last month.

Now he hopes to tie up a revised arrangement with the 36-year-old, who kept his second clean sheet in four games in Sunday’s 2-0 win against Barnsley at The Amex.

Poyet revealed to The Argus: “The idea in the beginning was it would be up to January. For some reasons, in the last few hours of negotiations, it changed to only a month. I don’t like a month because players get used to how you play then go back, so I was as surprised as anyone.

“I was convinced it was for almost three months. It’s very difficult to explain the reasons but it happened.

“I know it is difficult when somebody is on a short loan and they are a long way from home, so there are things we need to manage. We want the players to be happy here.

Read the full story plus how Albion's forgotten man fell off the radar in The Argus today