WHEN Steve Bruce heads over to Sunderland for an end of season summit with owner Ellis Short on Tuesday, he will be in a far brighter mood than he could have been.

A series of results on the final day of the Premier League together with a 3-0 victory at West Ham United ensured that Bruce achieved his primary goal for the campaign: A top ten finish.

It might have been that Sunderland only finished tenth, but that was achieved at the end of a season when a squad was halved by a succession of serious injuries. That is not an excuse, it is fact.

Bruce's meeting with Short is likely to have a totally different theme to it. The manager, for one, can head in to it with a completely different message to get across.

Now he can highlight that he delivered a Premier League top ten finish – the first by the club in ten years – despite having key players ruled out for much of the season and cashing in on England striker Darren Bent in January.

'Imagine', he could say. 'Where we might have been with a stronger squad.'

It will be Short's stance that will be crucial.

Bruce knows he needs a minimum eight new players to stand a chance of helping the club make further progress next season. Just how much cash Short will hand him to spend remains to be seen.

Much has been made of an outlay of more than £50m since he took over two summers ago, but it is also worth noting that he has actually brought in more than £40m in sales – although the wage bill has risen considerably.

He has had his transfer disasters. Paulo Da Silva, Cristian Riveros, Marcos Angeleri and Matt Kilgallon are the main four, but he can point to the success stories of Darren Bent, Titus Bramble and Simon Mignolet in equal measure.

Bruce will not be given an open cheque book to bring in the players he wants, but Sunday's events should have strengthened his hand after climbing four places to earn £3.2m more than they had on Sunday morning.

He has designs on acquiring a marquee signing to go with the cheaper options he will inevitably have to fill his squad with - and there is every chance the events at Upton Park have significantly boosted his cause.