Steve Coppell was offered a ten-year contract to manage Albion by former chairman Dick Knight.

Knight made the staggering offer after initially overlooking Coppell, because he fell asleep at his interview.

Details of the shock deal on the table for the ex-Albion boss are revealed in a new book about Coppell called On A Wing And A Prayer, by Stuart Roach.

Knight tried to persuade Coppell to make a long-term commitment to the club in 2003, after he had almost saved the Seagulls from relegation from the Championship and then had them in promotion contention in League One.

Knight said: “I sat down for dinner with Steve and offered him a ten-year contract. He had been with me almost exactly a year, but by then I knew exactly what I was dealing with.

“Initially Steve is very hard to communicate with but once you get past the innate reserve what comes back is loads of common sense, logic and intelligence.

“He has intelligence beyond football and is the most complex manager I worked with. He’s also therefore the most challenging, but also the most rewarding once you get the communication going.

“I wanted him to stay with us until Brighton were in their new ground and, hopefully, in the Premiership – and I wanted him to take us there and then help develop the next manager of Brighton.

“But when I offered him the ten-year contract he said: ‘I can’t take it, Dick, because I may just have another opportunity and I don’t feel comfortable with being offered that length of time.

FULL STORY IN TODAY'S ARGUS