I DON'T like talking about money - but money talks in modern football.

And the time is now right to make some real money available to Steve Cotterill so he can bring in four or five new faces so we can mount a real challenge for the Premiership next season. And those players are going to cost money.

The second tier of English football is better than it ever has been and the front runners have got to spend money to be up there.

And next season, with Wolves just announcing a new £30m investment and the teams coming down from the Premiership, laden with cash from their parachute payments, it's more important than ever that we invest and invest now.

I like the noises that Brendan Flood, the new director at Turf Moor, is making. He's not a foreign investor, he's a real Claret and he's got the club's interests at heart.

He's talking about investing in the team and that can only be good news. I'm really looking forward to meeting him and finding out more about him and his plans for the future.

I'm sure Steve has his transfer targets but a lot will depend on what is said at his meeting with chairman Barry Kilby about the size of the war chest at his disposal. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at that meeting.

That will determine how competitive we will be next season and what kind of ambition we really have.

The board must decide whether they want the Clarets to be contenders, also rans or a mid-table team.

Whatever is said, our top priority must be a goalkeeper. With Danny Coyne having been released, we only have Brian Jensen so we need a quality back-up to "The Beast."

I've been saying for a long-time that we need a proper right-back, not someone who can fill in there, and we need an out-and-out goalscorer. I'm sure I'm saying anything here that Steve doesn't know already.

We showed last season that we have the capabilities to be contenders. For periods at the beginning, and at the end of the season, we were brilliant.

But there was a big patch in the middle when the we didn't and I'm sure Steve will be working on the reasons why that happened.

But for now, the future is looking very bright if you're a follower of the Clarets and we're all waiting with bated breath to see what happens over the next few weeks.

But I know one thing for sure, it would be nice if we could sell out Turf Moor for every game like we have for tonight's England B international against Albania!.

That would be fantastic!