Albion lost Glenn Murray to arch rivals Crystal Palace, because Gus Poyet could not use funds for transfer fees for wages.

The money was kept separate but boss Poyet has now persuaded the Seagulls to change their playing budget policy.

Murray left to join tomorrow’s Amex visitors Palace in May 2011 after firing Albion to the League One title.

The Seagulls bought top scorer Craig Mackail-Smith from Peterborough for about £3 million in July 2011 but he is out for the rest of the season with a ruptured Achilles, while Murray returns to his old club bang in form with 30 goals to his name.

Poyet revealed to The Argus: “At that time we couldn’t use the money that we paid for Macca to pay Glenn’s contract. It was not available. It was totally separate.

“We were able to sign Craig, because there was a structure at the club that the money we were using at that time for transfers was not involved in the salaries.

“In my world a pound in the transfer market is the same pound in the salary market. In this football club no, you can use this pound to buy a player but you cannot use it to pay a player.

“We have changed a little bit this year after hard work between me and the financial side of the club so a little bit of that went the other way.

“It’s better now, because for me it was important to manage those two sides of the budgets in a different way.

“We had a chance to sign players that were free but we needed to pay them a lot more than the players you needed to buy. I was not able to do it. It was a little bit frustrating.”