We don’t have the cash to splash - Kee

However despite winning the Championship One title and moving up to mixing it with the likes of Cliftonville, Linfield, Glentoran and Portadown, the Drumahoe club will not be breaking the bank to ensure they avoid relegation.

The Waterside men have learned from their mistakes and Kee remains upbeat that he’ll be able to get a strong squad to produce the goods against the big boys.

“I’m hoping to give youth a chance next season in the Irish League Premiership,” said the Stute gaffer.

“We are very keen to give young players an opportunity to play at the highest level, we are also keen to retain most of the squad that played last year, because they deserve a chance of playing Premiership football.

“We are also hoping to be prudent in the transfer market. We aren’t going to bring in players for the sake of bringing them in, we are going to try and develop our younger players and work with our current squad of experienced players and hope they have enough to sustain our Premiership plan.”

The Drumahoe man also concedes that he will be trying to maybe get some young players who are on the fringes of first team squads on loan, to give them that senior football experience.

“I’m going to be in contact with some clubs about the possibility of getting a few loan players, particularly younger players. That’s something I’m going to explore in the next few weeks.

“But we’ll have to see what we need first - we are happy enough with what we have got.”

Kee also confirmed that he hopes to speak to the majority of last season’s title winning squad this week and re-sign them for this season and regards what type of squad he does have they will be giving their all.

“I told the boys that I was going to give them a couple of weeks off after the season ended, so I’ll start getting around the players this week and then see what we need.

“We don’t have the cash to splash about, which I can understand to a degree, so, as I have said, we have to be prudent with it.

“We could be doing with one or two experienced players, so we’ll be looking to see who is available and who’s up for the challenge.

“We’ll be giving it a bash and we’ll be doing what we did last season. There were a quite a few teams who had a bigger budgets than us, but to be honest it’s not about money, it’s about commitment, effort, quality, attitude and application and we’ll be trying to develop that even more, the staff will have to work that bit harder.

“We have got a plan and we’ll stick to it and hopefully it comes together.

“We know it’s going to be a challenge, but we are up for it,” concluded Kee.

Meanwhile former Stute man Philip Lowry looks set to be moving to Foyleside again, as the midfielder is expected to sign for Derry City and turn down Linfield’s offer of re-signing him.