Brighton chairman says won't break the bank after Premier League promotion

REUTERS - Brighton and Hove Albion must strengthen the squad following their promotion to the Premier League, but they will resist the temptation to spend lavish sums on transfers, club chairman Tony Bloom has said.

Brighton's Glenn Murray and Solly March scored in a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic in the Championship on Monday to secure the south coast team's return to the top flight after a 34-year absence.

Promotion to the Premier League is set to provide a major financial boost to Brighton. But Bloom said he would stick to a sensible spending strategy.

"The amounts of money in the Premier League does equalise things a bit," Bloom told the British media.

"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."

Bloom also praised manager Chris Hughton, who arrived at the Amex in 2014 when Brighton were struggling near the bottom of the second division.

"We were in a bad position when he came in. The first stage was to get us to stay up. He did that. It wasn't pretty or easy," he added.

"He gets a lot of respect and a huge amount of credit from me. Everyone is impressed with the job he's done at Brighton."

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru)