Chief executive Jez Moxey insists Wolves will be better equipped to deal with the Premier League if they go up now – after hinting Albion haven’t spent enough.

Moxey claims Wolves – who top the Championship by three points with seven games left – have learned lessons from six years ago, when a lack of investment spelt immediate relegation from their only top flight season in 25 years.

What will be seen as a mission statement from Wolves’ chief officer amounts to the strongest hint yet from inside Molineux that the club is planning for the Premier League.

Especially as he claimed Wolves will “strike while the iron is hot” to secure the right players.

Moxey said: “If you look at West Brom, they’ve spent good money and they’re currently bottom of the league.

“Maybe they’re not paying enough to their players or getting the right quality in. Stoke have spent quite a bit of money, but probably not enough.

“Compare it to say Bolton, they’re spending quite a bit more money than those two clubs. Look where they are in the table. While all these clubs have a fighting chance of staying up, if you draw up a table of the average over three years of where teams finish and then correlate that to their wage bill, they’re going to be very well aligned.

“Having been there and spoken to people in the Premier League, it’s fair to say money is the be-all and end-all. So you’ve got to be competitive.”

Moxey reckons Wolves will continue to invest, to try to avoid falling into the same trap as the clubs struggling to stay up. He said: “Wolves chairman Steve Morgan has injected a large sum of money – thanks to the deal Sir Jack Hayward did with him – to enable this club to invest.

“We’ve invested wisely with this team. But we know we need to continue to invest. I think with all of our activity over the last couple of seasons, we’ve tried to strike while the iron is hot.

“In 2003-04, we were clearly not well equipped to deal with the challenges. We were promoted through the play-offs and we were five or six weeks behind the other two (promoted) teams.”

By TIM NASH