The Albion assistant manager explained that all the players and staff will be pushing to achieve this, and help the club achieve its aim of becoming one of the country’s top teams.
She said, “It’s exciting and you want a vision that’s challenging and realistic, because it will make you push that extra five per cent.
“It’s a great challenge and the players will be determined to get there. It gives us something to strive towards every day. I know that the players want to get there sooner rather than later, as do the staff.
“We do a lot of education with the players and everyone has a desire to get there. I can’t fault their effort, and I believe they will in time.”
Merricks stressed that it is important not to rush towards that goal too quickly, and highlighted the fact that everyone in the squad is still learning what it takes to play at the highest level.
“When you go from part-time to full-time training, it’s a big ask. It was great that we were able to keep the bulk of the players here and getting them to fulfil their potential will take time.
“We’ve got more to do, and we’re striving to get more consistency in our performances. If we can improve on what we did last year, then we’ll be fine. Everyone in the camp has to trust each other.
“We have huge belief, but we can’t afford to cut corners. Delivering consistently at the highest level is very difficult.”
The young coach also highlighted the importance of drawing on the knowledge from everyone in the backroom staff and reiterated the key roles they will play in the upcoming season.
“We want a multi-disciplinary staff team because ultimately everyone brings different skills, knowledge and expertise.
“Ivo [Miguel], Lisa [Walsh], Ed [Filmer], Alex [Penny] and Shameema [Yousuf] are all experts in their respective fields, and we’d be crazy if we didn’t use that knowledge. If we can bring it all together then it will only raise the performance of the team.”