Jelle van Damme today revealed Wolves are aiming for a top 12 finish in the Premier League next season – after declaring them “better than Anderlecht”.

The Belgium international has been impressed with the quality Wolves have shown in pre-season so far.

And the 6ft 3ins left-back, who joined Wolves for £2.5m from the Champions League qualifiers, believes he has joined a squad of superior quality capable of bettering last season’s 15th-placed finish.

“If you look at last season’s table, there wasn’t a lot of difference from 17th to 12th position so it’s only a matter of getting results from a few more games – but you’ve still got to get the points,” said van Damme.

“I think that’s what we’re aiming for.

“But the main ambition is to stay up and to improve on last season’s position, which would be fantastic.

“Personally, I just want to play as many games as possible at this level and help the team to get good results.” Van Damme added: “I think Wolves are as good as Anderlecht.

“We’re already a team despite only being together for a few weeks and we should be fitter too at the moment.

“It’s a much harder league here.

“The pre-season here is much harder than in Belgium though but it needs to be that way because the level of competition is harder.

“I think this is the hardest pre-season I’ve done, although there was another one at Werder Bremen that was really hard as well.

“This one is really tough but it’s just a matter of getting through it, playing the friendlies, getting our fitness levels back up and being as fit as possible for the start of the season.”

Van Damme also believes tonight’s clash against Charleroi will be Wolves’ stiffest so far after heavy wins against Bohemians and Walsall.

“I think it will be a good test for us because it’s only a week before the season starts in Belgium so they should be very fit and probably playing their best team — that’s what I’d be doing anyway,” said the former Ajax man.

“I’ve played against them a few times before and I’ve generally always had good results against them.”

By Tim Nash