Peter Moores believes his Lancashire squad can compete at the top of Division One next season after securing an immediate return to the top flight.
The Red Rose lifted the Division Two championship at the first time of asking having been relegated in 2012.
And the 50-year-old believes his side have a good chance to reclaim the title they won in 2011.
“We’ll have a good crack,” he told ecb.co.uk. “I think we’ve got a good squad. It’s got stronger because some of the younger players have really stepped up and made the squad very competitive.
“We’ve also got some very good players not in the side at the moment that are going to be fighting really hard to get back in.
“In that first division you’ve got to have depth, you’ve got to be hungry to play, be up for it every day and I think hopefully by the time we come to next year we’ll have a squad like that.”
Moores believes the young players in the Lancashire squad who have hopes of a long career with the club have a shining example in front of them.
Glen Chapple led from the front once again, taking 53 wickets at 20.73 during the campaign. And Moores was full of praise for his 39-year-old captain.
“He’s been brilliant. ‘Benjamin Button’ the boys call him now; he’s going backwards so he’s still going to play in another five years time,” he said.
“He’s bought in to everything that I think the modern world offers as well as keeping hold of the traditions of the game.
“So he’s a great, skilful bowler who hits the seam and knows how to bowl in England, but he still embraces new ways of physical conditioning and ways of preparing and recovering to make sure he gets on the park.
“He’s a great advert I think for anybody who wants to play and extend their careers; if you do the right things and work hard then you can do that.”
Lancashire’s title success was incredibly dominant. Moores’ unbeaten men have won eight of their 15 games and are a full 35 points ahead of second-placed Northamptonshire with one fixture left to play, leaving their head coach thrilled with the way the season panned out.
“I thought getting off to a good start was really important, which we did, and then playing consistent cricket,” he said.
“When we went down (from Division One), we’d obviously won it the year before but we’d been in the top four two years before that so we knew we had decent players.
“We played good cricket, the weather’s been a lot better and once we got some confidence we got on a bit of a roll and managed to maintain that all the way through.”
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