Tony Pulis has warned that many of his Stoke players will have to be shipped on this summer because they are still ‘miles away' from being good enough to compete even with mid-table Premier League teams.
The Potters were a nigh-on universal tip for relegation back to The Championship at the first time of asking this year but have defied their doubters - and then some.
Despite Sunday’s 4-1 defeat to Arsenal, Pulis still succeeded in guiding his side not only clear of relegation but into a more-than-comfortable 12th-placed finish.
However, he now knows that there is dead wood that must be moved on if the club are to start making more incremental progress in the forthcoming years.
“The people who’ve played a great part for this football club over the past season or two will have to move on,” said Pulis.
“It will be very difficult, but a lot of guys haven’t played as many games this season as they have in the past and they won’t want to be hanging around again because they are all competitive players who want to be playing.
“There will be changes all over to make sure we can drive forward. Even mid-table Premier League clubs are miles in front of us.
“If anybody gets carried away and thinks we are going to finish better next year they are kidding themselves.
“We need two or three years to grow in this league because I know we’re so far behind after going round other clubs and speaking to managers about their set-ups.
“The gulf on and off the pitch is enormous and we’ve only managed to bridge that gap this season through the great spirit we’ve generated. But now we need to try and find more quality to push on.”