John Collins says Fulham must spend for the Premiership

Seconds after Fulham were crowned as Division One champions with a 1-1 draw against Sheffield Wednesday, player-coach John Collins said they must spend big money to compete in the Premiership.

Fulham have several players with Premiership experience - strikers Louis Saha and Luis Boa Morte and midfielder Lee Clark. But Collins, himself a former Premiership star with Everton, feels the Craven Cottage outfit will need a further injection of cash from chairman Mohamed Al Fayed to challenge in the top flight.

"No doubt we'll strengthen the team in the summer because every team needs to improve, even Manchester United and Arsenal," said Collins. "We've proved that we can match Premier teams when we've met them in the cups and now we'll have to do it week by week. I'm looking forward to getting back into the Premiership myself. It's great for the club that Sean Davis had got two vital goals for us in the last week. That is a tribute to our youth system which will become even more important now."

Wednesday caretaker manager Peter Shreeves was pleased with his side's battling performance, but sounded out a warning to the champions, saying they won't have it all their own way next season. "I think Fulham should do well next season but Blackburn are also a good team and look what happened to them when they played Arsenal a couple of weeks ago," warned Shreeves. "We're the gatecrashers at the party. It's been a good day for Sheffield Wednesday, there's no doubt about that. We defended well against a talented side. Gerald Sibon is our specialist at dead ball situations and he caught their keeper napping today."