Kevin Keegan concedes an immediate challenge for Champions League football is unfeasible for Newcastle United as he prepares to discover how desperate owner Mike Ashley is for a trophy.
The Magpies are starting to sparkle again under Keegan following three successive wins to raise confidence ahead of next season.
During Keegan's first stint at St James' Park, Newcastle were regular title challengers, but the manager feels those days are gone.
However, he plans to meet Ashley to discuss his summer transfer kitty as he looks to bring European football back to Tyneside.
"Mr Ashley said he wanted to win something in three-and-a-half years," Keegan told reporters. "When we sit down in the next few weeks we will see how desperate he is to win something in that time.
"That will become clear when we see the players this club will go after in the summer. We haven't had that conversation yet.
"It's a different world now compared to when I first came here as a manager.
"Without showing any disrespect to my players I think you could take any one of the players on the benches of the top four and they would be five of the first six names on the team sheet at most other clubs.
"It's not practical or feasible for a manager of Newcastle United to say what I said before, 'Watch out Sir Alex, we are after your title'.
"They have gone on and in many respects we have gone backwards.
"You hope you could appeal to some of the players who go to the top four clubs and don't play every week. We need four or five players, but if you are clever that doesn't need to cost a lot of money. You can get Bosmans worth £10m, so we will see what we can do there too.
"We can go for the top players, but we can't offer them European football - and we can't offer them a top-four finish next season.
"Outside of the top eight would be unacceptable. We've got a group of teams such as Spurs, Villa and Everton we can challenge, but not the top four.
"If you forget ability and look at the size of the club, the turnover, the fan base and take everything into consideration we should finish fifth to eighth."
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