Stoke boss Tony Pulis has spoken to TEAMtalk's Insider Mark Holmes about the long-term plans he and chairman Peter Coates have for the club.

Stoke are currently in the midst of a battle for Premier League survival with Saturday's home game against Middlesbrough arguably representing their most important of the season so far.

On the training ground Pulis is focusing all his energy on preparing his squad for that, but the long-term future of the club is never too far from the Welshman's mind and he took the time out to speak to TEAMtalk about his determination to put Stoke on a par with their top-flight rivals - not just on the pitch, but off it too.

The club has already unveiled plans for a £5million revamp of the training ground, due to be ready in time for the start of the 2010/11 season, but Pulis insists that is just the first step in their development as a genuine Premier League outfit.

He said: "Before the Everton game last week we trained at Liverpool's Academy, not even their first team's training ground, but the Academy's. You see the infrastructure they have there and the methods they've got in place just for Academy football and they are on a different planet to us.

"So we have to build, but we have to build carefully and make sure it's done in the proper manner. This club needs dragging forward but step by step we're doing that and moving on.

"In the last couple of years we've gone from rank outsiders in the Championship to a Premier League club but everything has to move forward after that. Peter (Coates) wants to build and build and that's what we're trying to do.

"We're sat looking at the training ground now and in a year's time this place will be completely and utterly revamped. We've have buildings in place, different pitches put down, two of them all-weather, so we're pushing on. But we have to keep pushing on."

Stoke have put in plans to build a two-storey 1,800sq metre building on their current Michelin training ground that wil house changing rooms, medical facilities, kitchen and refectory area, a hydrotherapy pool and gym, plus office accommodation and a media suite.

There will also be two full-size football pitches, while a floodlit pitch and all-weather pitches will be put into place down the line, all of which will be for the use of the first team and the Academy, something Pulis has long pushed for after previously criticising the basing of the Academy on a different site to the first-team squad.

The two now train together and Pulis believes that move, plus the appointment of Steve Holland as Academy director, will improve the club's poor record at youth level.

He said: "We're pleased with Steve. Quite a few people applied for the job but Steve has been at Crewe and knows the local area and the local players very well.

"His remit is to bring in better young players and organise the whole Academy a bit better. You can't put it down to one person because there's lots of people involved in youth football that find these players before you even know about them, but we needed someone to direct it, push it and drive it on and we're hoping Steve will do that.

"We're hoping to have a structure in place that will not only improve our record locally, but take us a bit further out of Stoke-On-Trent as well."

Holland was in charge of Crewe's ultra-successful Academy for a number of years before an unsuccessful 16-month stint as manager, and the 39-year-old has already started work at the Britannia Stadium.