THE stadium is top class and there are high hopes that the team on the field can take Wanderers back to the Promised Land of the Premiership.

Now Sam Allardyce believes he has a backroom team to match.

"These are the people who will shape the fortunes of this club for years to come," the manager said as he proudly paraded his staff for a Reebok photoshoot. "Without them we haven't got a football club."

Management, coaches, physios, trainers, conditioners, performance coaches, academy bosses and the necessary administrative staff already numbers 20 - more than at any time in the club's history - and Allardyce is as committed to further strengthening the squad behind the scenes as he is to reinforcing his playing staff.

"It's up to other people to raise the funds we need to ensure that the club prospers financially," he acknowledged, "but to me these people are the most crucial element in the success or failure of the club.

"The stadium's fantastic! It raises expectations that we should be in the Premiership. But bricks and mortar never made a player or a successful team. It's no good having a stadium without a team and to have a good team you have to have the right backroom staff.

"Their roles are to find, produce and develop the best players. They are the future and they are the way forward."

A handful of Allardyce's team were already in place before he arrived a year ago but he has made his mark in key areas - not least with the promotion of Phil Brown, his former right hand man at Blackpool, from chief coach to assistant manager.

The recruitment of specialist fitness coaches, who concentrate on the physical well being of players, and advanced performance coaches who concentrate on their mental fitness broke new ground for Wanderers.

Recent appointments have seen the return of former player Neil McDonald, who quit his job as Youth Team coach at Preston to take charge of the Under 19s at the Reebok, ex-Blackpool midfielder Mark Taylor, who succeeds Mark Leather as senior physio, Jack Chapman who takes over from Dean Crombie as chief scout and the promotion of Jimmy Phillips - Bolton-born and the club's longest serving player - to the role of player-coach with special responsibilities for the reserve team.

Recent confirmation that Allardyce is negotiating a lengthy extension to his current four and a half year contract underlined the manager's commitment to refurbishing the entire footballing side of the club and his intention to leave a legacy that will stand the club in good stead for many years to come.

To that end, he is determined to impose as much influence on the structure of the Acedemy as he is on his first team.

He holds strong views on how the academy system should operate, advocating summer training for the u-9s to u-16s and insisting that more funding should come from government sources and makes it clear that he won't rest until Wanderers can emulate the successes Manchester United and Leeds United have scored with their 'home grown' policies.

"It's been done on a short-term basis by previous managers but there's never been a five or ten year plan in place," he explains.

"I'll never lose sight of the need for success at first team level. We are striving to take the club back up into the Premiership, where we all believe it belongs - even though we have only had four seasons in the top flight in almost 40 years!

"But, if we are going to stay there, we must have a structure in place that makes sure we can compete with the best in finding and developing the best young players."