SWINDON Wildcats have upped their spending this season as they bid to take the franchise to the next level and secure their status in the upper echelons of the English Premier Ice Hockey League.

Cats supremo Steve Nell has invested in what he has described as one of their strongest ever squads. New imports Sami Ryhanen and Miroslav Zalesak both bring plenty of experience, to add to the established Link Centre talents of skipper Jan Kostal and Tomasz Malasinski.

Factor in young starlet Corey McEwen, as well as Kenton Smith, and it becomes clear why Nell believes he has such a strong squad.

Last season the budget ended up going a bit over as the Cats brought back Jonas Hoog late in the season and carried an extra import. However, this time that extra body and an increased quality of signing has seen Nell up the planned expenditure significantly.

“The budget is slightly increased. Last year was a little bit different because we carried the extra import on top of Kenton,” said Nell “If you think what our budget should have been last year, not what it ended up, then there is quite an increase - maybe 10 or 15 per cent.

“We carried the extra import with (Henri) Sandvik and I wanted to stick by people, because I didn’t want to fire people.

“This is the best team we have had for a long time.

“It is not only the level of the player, but also the depth.

“Our fourth line this year was probably our third line a couple of years ago, so that is good for us.”

With that extra investment comes increased expectation.

Even once the increase in the quality of the league has been taken into account, Nell was quite clear in what his aims are for the team this season.

“We want to break into the top four,” he added. “That is where we want to be challenging in that top four and challenging Telford.

“Top four is definitely realistic and we haven’t been able to say that in the past.

“We have been able to say that we could beat anybody on our night, but now we can say we can beat anybody every night.

“With the team we have got we should be able to compete, but it is going to be tough because other teams are doing a similar thing.

“Some of the teams were top one or two teams five or six years ago, but then when you bring other teams in that have got money then they drop down.

“We have always been around that seven, eight, nine position, so to be fifth last year with the teams above us, five years ago we might have won the league.”