Wanderers are sitting at the top table of Premiership football again as they head for their best season for four decades.

The Whites are on course to deliver a windfall of up to £3 million in extra prize money for a mid-table finish that has earned them the respect of their rivals and given chairman Phil Gartside the confidence to sanction a "more adventurous" investment in players.

The Reebok chairman has revealed that the club had conservatively budgeted to finish 17th in the Premier League in this, their third year in the top flight.

That would have earned them a £2 million bonus from the league's prize fund, on top of television revenues of around £18 million. But a comfortable 2-0 victory over Spurs on Saturday strengthened their hold on 12th place which, should the table stay the same, would see them bank an additional £2.5 million. Wanderers are still pushing for a top 10 finish and, in their current form, are aiming to beat the 1962 mark of 11th and record the club's highest league placing since Bill Ridding's team finished sixth in 1960 -- and every place earns them an extra £500,000.

"If we finish 12th or 13th, it would be worth a lot of money to us," Gartside said.

"A couple of million would make a lot of difference to our planning for next season.

"The TV monies are not going to be quite as much next year -- we don't know the precise figures yet but it could be as much as £1m or so -- and if we can make up that shortfall by finishing a couple of places higher, we can look forward with a lot more confidence.

"Having planned to finish 17th this season, we might be planning to finish a bit further up the table and that will mean us putting more into what we call the "gamble pot".

"We have to be a bit more adventurous. We'll try and bring players in on the basis we have done in the past but, if we can't, we'll look out there to see if there are players we can afford to buy.

"Sam (Allardyce) has been travelling around Europe in the last few weeks, assessing players we've had good scouting reports on, some of whom we are seriously thinking about making moves on and one or two we already have.

"If they are out of contract in the summer, we are looking at getting them under contract with us before the end of the season, which will give us the chance to bring them in earlier.

"Sam's been to see quite a few big players, some big names, in Europe and here as well. He's still got some hard miles to run because some of the players are involved in European football and it's not going to be easy, if they are playing Champions League football, to persuade them to come here and play mid-table Premier League."

An indication of how Wanderers are now respected came at a function to mark the retirement of former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates last week. Gartside added: "Five years ago, we wouldn't have even got the crumbs off the top table -- or the bottom table for that matter.

"But the other night I sat with Ken Bates, Martin Edwards (former Manchester United supremo), Doug Ellis (Aston Villa chairman), Sir Philip Carter (Everton), Robert Coar (Blackburn) and Dave Richards (Football Association) which is effectively the team that formed the Premier League. That was a great honour for the club.

"That's the measure of how far the club has come. We are looked on now as a model club -- not just for what we do on the field but how we run the club."

"We've had a fantastic year and really established ourselves as a Premier League club. It would be nice to finish half way up the table just to prove that point."