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Chris Birchall #7Chris Birchall has issued a sign me plea to Albion.

Trialist Birchall is hoping chairman Dick Knight will sanction a two or three-year deal today to bring him to Withdean.
The 24-year-old former Coventry midfielder played in a 4-0 defeat for the reserves against Reading at Lancing last night and he also featured in an in-house match at the training ground on Monday.

Birchall said: “I have been here for nine or ten days now and I am just waiting to see if Micky Adams wants me to stay.

“There is nothing more that I want at the moment. He knows I want to stay, I don’t want to go anywhere else. I have an option on the table in America (with San Jose Earthquakes) but that is something I don’t really want to do at this stage of my career. I’d rather stay in England.

“I’ve played under him before at Coventry after he signed me from Port Vale. I like his man-management, I like coming into training every day and that is something I haven’t felt for a couple of years since Micky left Coventry.

“It’s always good to have a manager who wants to play you, knows what you can do and has confidence in you. If he wants me to sign I would be absolutely delighted.

“Preferably I will find out today. I think it’s just up to him if he gets the all-clear from the chairman. Ideally I want to sign a two or three-year deal, because I want to be able to concentrate on my football and settle down here with my family.

"If I was only here until the end of the season then so be it but that makes it difficult, because you can't settle down."

Birchall is due to play in three World Cup qualifiers for Trinidad and Tobago between now and the end of the season but he does not regard his international commitments as a barrier to joining the Seagulls.

He said: "It caused a few problems at Port Vale and sometimes at Coventry. Micky thought I was a bit jet-lagged but I was flying from Trinidad to Gatwick then all the way up to Manchester and back to Coventry where as if I was settled here the flight would only be back to Gatwick.

"I would be back to training the day before matches. That is really up to the gaffer, I can't help that. I have got to play for Trinidad. He understands that, he never had a problem with the World Cup qualifiers at Coventry, only friendlies."