Tony Bloom: 'Brighton not looking to spend huge amounts'
Brighton chairman Tony Bloom has promised to strengthen Chris Hughton's squad as he prepares for the Premier League but will not be tempted to abandon a sensible spending strategy.
Promotion to the top-flight is worth an estimated £200million to each club in terms of the projected share of the broadcasting rights package, prize money and the associated boosts to sponsorship and commercial incomes.
Brighton are going up into the Premier League for the first time and into the top tier of English for the first time since 1983.
Brighton manager Chris Hughton has been promised funds after promotion to the top flight
The Seagulls are set to play in the Premier League after a 34-year absence from the top flight
Having flirted with oblivion during their exile, however, there are no plans to change methods which have worked well since multi-millionaire Bloom took control in 2009.
Together with chief executive Paul Barber, the chairman will set out to keep the best players such as Anthony Knockaert and add quality when the transfer market opens.
'The amounts of money in the Premier League does equalise things a bit,' said Bloom. 'Money is spent every season at every single club. We have to strengthen, that goes without saying. But we're not looking to spend huge amounts.
'We'll do things on a gradual basis as we have done. We have good players already and we want to strengthen from that position.'
Brighton chairman Tony Bloom has promised to strengthen Chris Hughton's squad next term
Bloom says there are no plans to change methods which have worked well since his arrival
Among those good players is Anthony Knockaert, the 25-year-old French winger, formerly at Leicester, who was signed in January last year from Standard Liege and was voted this season's Championship's player of the year.
'He'd been a player we'd followed for a while,' said Bloom. 'He wasn't settled at Standard Liege and wanted to come back to England. We knew how brilliantly he'd done at Leicester and, in the last 18 months it's been a pleasure watching him. He scores goals and creates goals. He has that X-factor.'
Newcastle were among the clubs who tried to lure him away from Brighton last summer.
'Anthony Knockaert loves Brighton and loves playing for this club,' said Bloom. 'We wanted to keep him and that was one of our easier ones.
Easter Monday's win at home to Wigan and Huddersfield draw at Derby confirmed promotion
Brighton fans flooded onto the pitch after the 2-1 win over the Latics with promotion assured
'There were one or two more difficult ones. We were desperate to keep the main players who had done so well last season. We set our stall out that's what we wanted to do.'
There was also a tribute from the chairman for popular manager Hughton who arrived at Brighton when they were struggling near the bottom of the Championship.
'He is one of the most respected managers in football,' said Bloom. 'He gets a lot of respect and huge amount of credit from me. Everyone is impressed with the job he's done at Brighton. Should he get more credit? I don't know. But he deserves the respect and credit.
'He has done a magnificent job. We were in a bad position when he came in. The first stage was get us to stay up. He did that. It wasn't pretty or easy, but even the biggest clubs in the world have bad seasons.'
Bloom heaped praise on Hughton for the job he has done at the Amex Stadium this season
Anthony Knockaert has excelled this term and has unfinished business in the Premier League
Brighton's revival offers inspiration for proud clubs on the slide, such as Leyton Orient and Coventry, suffering under unscrupulous ownership.
Twenty years ago, the Seagulls almost slipped out of the Football League at a time when the Goldstone Ground had been sold and they were forced to play in exile at Gillingham and the Withdean athletics stadium before the Amex Stadium was opened in 2011.
Asked what his club will bring to the Premier League, Bloom replied: 'A great city, a great fan base, an amazing stadium sold out every game, and hopefully on the pitch we will do the city and our supporters proud.
'We feel elated that we're in the Premier League. We were so close to going out of the Football League. And what would the future have held in the Conference without a ground?'