STEVE Bruce believes Hull City have everything in place to become an established Premier League force after climbing back amongst the elite of English football.
The Tigers ended a three-year stay in the Championship on Saturday when a 2-2 draw with Cardiff confirmed a famous promotion as runners-up just 11 months after Bruce's appointment.
A £120m windfall is now guaranteed for City and Bruce has wasted no time outlining his long-term vision for the club.
Cementing the Tigers' status as a top-flight resident tops the manager's wish-list, but he has stressed the rebuilding work will not be allowed to threaten the club's financial well-being.
"If you think we are going to start signing people for £15m, you are very mistaken," said Bruce, after toasting promotion on Saturday.
"If you try to get a £15m player, no disrespect to us, but they will have five or six clubs to choose from.
"And the only way to bring them here would be to pay huge, huge money in wages. I won't do that to the chairman or the club.
"What we can do, though, is do a Wigan or a West Brom. By that, I mean build the club into something better. Make it bigger and stronger. And put Hull City in a really, really strong situation and in healthy shape.
"To do that, there has to be trust. And I know for a fact that the trust of the owner is there.
"It is a fine line to get it right. If you give people big contracts, big wages and go down then you are lumbering your club. So, we won't do anything silly."
The measured words of Bruce, who completed a personal hat-trick of promotions out of the Championship following success with Birmingham in 2002 and 2007, will be reassuring for City fans stung by the Premier League excess three years ago.
Despite banking an estimated £90m from two seasons in the top flight following the 2008 promotion under Phil Brown, City returned to the Championship in 2010 staring into a financial abyss under former owner Russell Bartlett.
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Only the intervention and subsequent investment of the Allam family, who seized control of the club in December 2010, saved the Tigers from the threat of liquidation.
"I don't know what happened before but I do know that without the chairman and his money, this place would be down the tubes," said Bruce.
"Maybe I shouldn't talk like that. But I will make sure that doesn't happen again. We will find a way to try to be competitive. The hard work starts now.
"We will make the best assault we can on the Premier League but I won't be going down the route of sending the club close to oblivion.
"We want to build the club up. We need to build the training ground and things like that. We will think long and hard to make sure we spend wisely."
Bruce called promotion with the Tigers one of the greatest achievements of his 35 years in football, but he will need to plunder the depths of his experience to bring further success in the Premier League.
City will inevitably begin the 2013-14 season as one of the favourites for relegation and Bruce added: "The toughest job is now keeping the club in the Premier League. You lose more than you win up there, that means a lot of disappointing Saturday nights.
"You have to win ten games in the Premier League. That sounds easy but it isn't. The gulf in the Premier League between the top six or seven and the rest is vast. It is not like that in the Championship.
"Down here, it is an even playing field. Anyone can win it. We all know who will win it in the Premier League."
Regardless of what 2013-14 brings, nothing can detract from Bruce's quite incredible debut campaign at the KC Stadium.
Discarded as manager of Sunderland in November 2011 and overlooked for the Wolves job three months later, the 52-year-old endured his longest spell out of football during the darkest period of his career.
Only when the Tigers came calling last June, offering Bruce to chance to succeed Nick Barmby, did the desired opportunity finally arrive.
What has followed has been a personal resurrection. Guiding an unfancied City side to second spot in the Championship, the club's finest hour outside the top flight, Bruce is back in the big time. A move to the KC Stadium has been vindicated sooner than he could ever have imagined.
"I had been in the Premier League for 10 years so thought I had proved myself at that level," he said.
"So, when the Championship comes knocking, then you think, 'Can I make the difference?' And, 'Do I have the enthusiasm?'
"No disrespect to Barnsley, Bristol or whoever, but could I go there on a horrible Tuesday night? I probably wasn't the flavour of last summer. I had two or three opportunities but none from the Premier League.
"There were five jobs up for grabs last year and I was a bit disappointed with that. So, I dusted myself down and went again."
