Stoke manager Tony Pulis plans major changes at the Potteries club to ensure they become established in the Barclays Premier League.
The Welshman, who received special mention along with Everton's David Moyes when the Barclays manager of the season award was handed to Sir Alex Ferguson last week, believes that survival this term is just the beginning for the Britannia Stadium club.
Stoke will start rebuilding their training ground this summer and Pulis said: "Work starts on improving the training ground next month, and that has to be done. I tend not to bring prospective new players to the training ground before they sign, I just take them to the Britannia instead."
He added: "We have to improve our scouting network. We have to understand where we are compared to the rest of the Premier League. We are not on the top shelf or the second.
"We have to be clever and cute to get to players before others spot them. But that only happens in time, and there are a lot of things I want to put into place that will improve the club over 10 years.
"We need good direction to be in places to see players before anyone else. We have pushed on remarkably, but when you are competing against what we are facing in this division then they are all in front of us. We must start making up that ground.
"As a club we have moved on tremendously over the past two years, winning promotion and staying in the Premier League.
"But we need time, three more years for sure, to put into operation all the things other clubs already have."
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15 to twenty mill to spend aint going to buy the quality we need to move forward i think we need 8 years to establish in the prem not three b-----s.
I think we should make some audacious moves for some big name players, I agree with TP we are not the most sort after club for top players to come, but if we make some headlines of trying to sign big names it will raise or profile and give us the reputation of a club who is hungry to progress not just be happy with safty at the end of season, i know it is early days for us and dont want to get carried away we did bloody brilliant this season, but we are the mighty stoke, we dont survive, we thrive!!!
Tony and the team have done brill this season and certianly stuffed it to all who wrote them off as the season began. It's a shame WBA have gone down as they were a good six points for us but never mind we have Wolves, Brum and Burnley that sould give us a good eighteen points : ) Well done THE POTTERS.
Way to go, Tone. We'll be with you...
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