Boss Steve Cooper says there is “a lot of planning going on behind the scenes” to give Nottingham Forest the best possible chance of long-term success.
And that included a meeting with owner Evangelos Marinakis as the Welshman looks to continue the progress the Reds have made under his stewardship.
Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bristol City at the City Ground ensured Forest remain in the hunt for a top-six finish this season.
But in a fans’ forum last week, Cooper was asked if there is a “Plan B” should promotion to the Premier League prove a step too far this term.
“We’re trying to play in a way, to behave in a way and to work in a way that gets us ready to win the next game. But we’re also doing that while building a philosophy of play and a philosophy of work that we think could help us a bit longer than that as well,” the head coach said, in a video on the club's YouTube channel.
“There’s loads of things going on behind the scenes.
“There’s nothing stopping us here from doing a good job, but there are always things you can improve on.
“It’s things like, we’ve changed the meeting room at the training ground, because I’m a big believer in meetings - they are part of the modern game and we’ve got a very good performance analysis team.
“We want to improve the training pitches. We want to start using data more. All of these things set up for high performance over a longer period of time. I just hope I’m bloody here to see it through!
“Short-term, every single game, whatever it takes to win, we’ll try to do it, in our way. “Sometimes when we win and don’t play well, it still bothers me. I’m a believer that you have a way of playing, and when you play well, you’ll win enough games over the course of the season.
“I don’t want it to be, one week we’re doing this and the next week we’re doing that, or he’s had a bad game so he has to be dropped, he’s had a good game so now he’s the best player. No. Consistency. Working, working, working our way every single day.
“That’s what we’re trying to do. But that’s with everything, including the staff we’ve got around the team and recruitment - we’ve made a couple of changes with players coming in in January, and it was important to sign some permanent players, because we want to build a team that can stay with us for a number of years and keep growing. The summer is going to be really important for that as well.
“I feel the same as you, every day, ‘what can we do, what can we do?’.
“But, if we don’t - and I hate to say that - it can’t be, ‘what are we doing now?’. It’s got to be, ‘well, we continue to build’.
“That’s why I think this club can be really good.
“I went to London the other week to meet Mr Marinakis. All he wants to do is support us. All he wants to do. ‘How can I help? What can we do?’
“The obvious thing is to say, ‘we want this player’ and ‘we want that player’. And of course I’m saying that.
“But I’m also saying, ‘I think if we improve the training pitches, this is going to help how we play football; if we change the meeting room, like you have done, the players can learn a bit easier; if we can improve this in the medical room, if we can improve the gym…’. I think that’s all part of high performance. And that’s what we are, a high performance centre.
“There’s a lot of planning going on behind the scenes.”
