Gus Poyet is on the brink of pledging his long-term future to Albion.

The manager had talks with chairman Tony Bloom on Friday and an announcement is expected soon, with Poyet poised to sign a three or four-year deal.

Bloom, writing in the programme for Saturday’s closing 1-0 victory against Yeovil at Withdean, said: “I hope Gus will be here for a long time.

“He signed an 18-month contract in November and I am confident he will be replacing that very soon with a new longer-term deal.”

Poyet said: “The situation is clear, I am very happy. I think there is a future at this club. I am making the team play they way I want, “We have a great chance to challenge for the play-offs or promotion next year so I want to stay here. Why would I want to go somwehere else where I have got to start from scratch again?

“Of course, we need to be realistic. I know Real Madrid are not coming but if they were you would have to let me go I suppose!

“There is a big difference between having a year contract and having three or four. If you have one year you just plan for one year and you don’t have to care too much about the second and third.

“When you have the option to look ahead and build I think it’s a little bit easier for the manager. The chairman looks happy so why am I going to say no?”

Meanwhile, Poyet will not be railroaded into paying an inflated price to land on-loan striker Ashley Barnes from managerless Plymouth.

He said: “We need to wait and see what is going to happen at Plymouth, who is going to be the manager and what they want.

“If they are going to go with crazy money he is going to stay at Plymouth, because he has one year left on his contract. He is 20 and in a year's time we can have him for free - six months in fact because on January 1st we can make an offer.

“So it's up to Plymouth, what they want to do with the player. We are working on plenty of things.”