Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is preparing a raid on the transfer market at the end of the season and believes the guarantee of Champions League football and the style of play he has developed at the club will make recruitment easier.
The five-times European champions have been the revelation of the Premier League season with their high-tempo attacking game and could still win a first English league title in 24 years over the next week.
“We will need to bring in players over the summer and the great plus about being in the Champions League is that it makes it easier to attract the top ones,” Rodgers told the Observer.
“We have a way of working and a way of playing that recommends itself to leading players.
“We have established a reputation as a creative, attacking team that wants to win games and that should stand us in good stead.
“Last summer when we were speaking to certain players they said they respected what we were trying to achieve but they wanted to play at the top level.
“We are at that level now, ahead of schedule, so I suspect this summer will be a totally different proposition.”
Liverpool's quest to bring the English title back to Anfield for the first time since 1990 hit a bump in the road when they were beaten 2-0 by Chelsea last weekend.
They get a chance to return to winning ways at Crystal Palace on Monday, their destiny no longer in their own hands but still in with a chance of winning the league depending on how other results pan out.
Manchester City cleared the biggest obstacle blocking their route to a second English title in three years with a 3-2 win over Everton on Saturday that took them above Liverpool on goal difference.
Both sides have 80 points with two games to play while Chelsea are third on 78, also with two to play.
Liverpool play their penultimate game away to Crystal Palace on Monday, with City, who boast a nine-goal superior goal difference, at home to Villa on Wednesday before next Sunday's finale to a gripping season.
Rodgers has no desire for this season to be a flash in the pan, however, and although he thinks the forward unit that scored the lion's share of the club's 96 goals this season is probably “okay”, is looking to bolster other areas of his squad.
“The owners recognise that we will need an injection of quality for next year and I know the profile of the players we will need,” he said.
“We don't need to change too much. The season we have had has been absolutely brilliant. We are a young team that's coming through, everybody is loving what Liverpool are doing, and now we are in the Champions League.
“Taking Liverpool back for the first time in five years makes me immensely proud, but that's for next season. We still have this season to finish first.” – Reuters