Stoke City boss Mark Hughes is pleasantly surprised by how his clubs transfer options have opened up in recent times.
The Potters have often struggled to attract big names to the Britannia Stadium but Hughes feels there is a shift in momentum after recently capturing Philipp Wollscheid on loan from Bayer Leverkusen and being in the running for Xherdan Shaqiri before he opted to join Inter Milan from Bayern Munich.
"We get the opportunity to discuss things at that level now, and I don't think that was the case here before," he said.
"It's fair to say in the past we've said to agents 'we could be interested' and the response has always been 'don't bother'.
"That was probably the case in previous years but that's certainly changed in my time here.
"We've brought different types of players here and players talk. They understand what we're trying to do, the football grapevine is everywhere and we become an option.
"Of course, we need to be in the top half of the table, that's the key to it, and if you're a consistent team you are an attraction.
"Don't underestimate the power of the Premier League as well. We can offer a good club, a well-run club, with good players already here.
"It's a good environment, a good situation to come into, with an opportunity to progress if you do well, so we've a lot to offer if you look at all the boxes we tick."
