Oran Kearney says Coleraine are "a different animal" to the club he took over back in 2011.
Over the past decade the 44-year-old has turned the Bannsiders from also-rans to title challengers.
Kearney has delivered major silverware in the form of the Irish Cup and League Cup as well as regular European football to The Showgrounds as he built a successful dynasty over two spells at the club in the past decade.
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But with success comes expectation, and Kearney is first to admit he doesn't have the time now he was afforded when he first arrived at the club to add to their accomplishments.
'Whether I like it or not, the length of time I've been in the job at Coleraine I don't have time for a year or two, I can't go back to a cycle like my first cycle," he said
"That first cycle involved two or three seasons of mediocrity, of waiting for young players to come through, and then getting our two or three seasons that we wanted.
"I'm not a mug. I have a fair understanding that I wouldn't get the time to do that again so it's a different animal now."
Coleraine's challenge is made even tougher with the investments at Larne and Glentoran as well as Linfield joining them as a full-time club, but it is a challenge Kearney embraces.
"We pride ourselves on recruitment and the standard of player we bring in," he said.
"It's been a massive transition for us – 12 out and 10 in – and it showed at the start of the year.
"People might say you're in and around the same place in the league you were last year but the problem is the way the league has kicked on
"We're very pleased both on and off the pitch with what we've got in this transition.
"Ideally this summer it'll be back to normal where it'll be a couple in and a couple out and we want to be smart about how we do that.
"We're really happy and you can see that on the pitch. All the new signings have added to us massively and all in their own way have big futures for the next couple of seasons."
Standing in their way of another trophy-winning season are Linfield.
The Bannsiders came within minutes of winning the League Cup last season before being pegged back by Cliftonville, who ran out 4-3 winners in extra time.
Kearney is hoping that experience will stand his side in good stead this time around.
"We're in it long enough now and been in enough finals now thankfully where it's performance driven, it's all about delivering a performance on the day," he said
"Last year, we delivered a performance for about 75-80 minutes but it wasn't enough.
"This year we've got to go the whole hog and get a performance for 90 minutes.
"There's so much to play for this season, it's so important we focus on, not just on this final but on a really strong finish in the league."
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