Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn is confident of an exciting summer transfer market - if they can beat the drop.
"At the moment, our aim is to stay away from the bottom three," he told the Sunderland Echo. "But, beyond that, our target is to establish ourselves into the top half of The Premier League and, with the squad that we have now, with their ages and profiles, it's not unrealistic.
"And I think that providing we stay up, we can hope for a period of stability and progress for Sunderland Football Club. Ricky (Sbragia) is looking to find the very best targets to bring in to improve the team and the board aims to make sure he has the money he wants to make it happen, so the will is there on both sides."
He added: "We will be able to go for more quality players because, for one thing, it will be our third year in The Premiership.
"That along increases our pulling power and we also have the finances in place to help in that direction.
"What I'm hoping for above all right now is that we can finish safely fairly early and Ricky can then focus on having six to eight weeks in the summer to put his stamp on the club."