David Healy accepts it will take a "monumental effort" for Linfield to defend their Irish Premiership title this season because of the significant investment being made throughout the league.
The Blues have won five of the last six league championships under Healy's tenure, but the Premiership landscape has started to shift over the past five years with the emergence of Larne and Glentoran as genuine contenders.
Larne currently sit top of the table following Friday night's 4-0 hammering of Cliftonville, while Glentoran sit second after seeing off Healy's side in convincing fashion at Windsor Park.
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Kenny Bruce's investment at Larne has transformed the Inver Park club from Championship strugglers to genuine Premiership contenders, while Ali Pour's arrival at the Oval has galvanised a Glentoran side whose last Gibson Cup success was back in 2009.
Healy says the cash injection at both clubs is aimed at achieving one thing - winning the title.
The Blues boss said: "Glentoran and Larne have invested heavily. The facts are there.
"They have invested heavily over the last two or three years to be league champions. They are not hiding away that fact.
"When both owners came in, they said they would be doing this and doing that. So the challenge has been set the last number of years and we have stood up and been counted.
"We have been more than up to the challenge. If we are to be champions this year, and I believe when we do find gears we will be champions again, it will be a monumental effort.
"People say Linfield get this and Linfield get that. There is Michael (McDermott), Oran (Kearney), Stephen (Baxter), Paddy (McLaughlin) and everyone else; you have seen it and the huge investment that has been made throughout the league. Not just the top five or six clubs.
"Look at Carrick's squad; Dungannon, Glenavon, Ballymena. Everyone has invested.
"The top three, four or five are a little bit more wealthy and their investment will eventually pay off. Glentoran or Larne could go and win the league this year.
"But if Larne win the league, Glentoran fans will be disappointed. And rightly so. And so will Linfield's supporters.
"If Glentoran go and win the league, Linfield and Larne supporters will be disappointed. And rightly so.
"We are all invested in the one thing, and we can't all win the league.
"The title race will be tight, I have no doubt about that. But we have all invested in one trophy.
"People will talk about the Irish Cup and reaching Europe, which is great for a lot of clubs. But three or four clubs are fully invested in winning the title. Not only this year, but last year and the year before. All to win one trophy.
"So again, we have been fortunate and good enough to be champions over the past number of years, and this year is going to be a hell of a challenge."
With rival clubs splashing the cash in the Irish Premiership, does Healy believe Linfield will have to loosen their own purse strings to ensure they compete at the top end of the table?
"First and foremost, the club has backed me from top to bottom on every decision we have made. They have been more than generous," he countered.
"We haven't gone and invested the supposed figures touted for some of the players out there, but we have invested in other ways.
"But from the chairman Roy McGivern and everyone else, anything that I have needed or wanted to improve the club, they have given us everything.
"So at this stage they have backed me from minute one to make sure we try and stave off the competition and keep trying to edge ahead.
"But this year will be a tough one."
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