Stoke City chairman Peter Coates says their squad will be stronger next season - if they beat the drop.

"The Premier League was a new ball game for us," Coates said, "so it was always going to be a steep learning curve.

"The secret is to learn quickly and, fingers crossed, I believe we have done that as a football club.

"It has been a great experience so far and I believe that, if we do stay up, then we will be better prepared next season because we now know a lot more than we did in areas such as the kind of players we need."