Rob Andrew has urged Sussex supporters to stop “harking back” to the golden days – and see the future.

The county’s chief executive believes an emerging young crop of talent can help bring good times back to Hove.

He has praised the efforts of director of cricket Keith Greenfield in securing rising stars on longer term deals in the last two months.

Sussex have been urged by their former England wicketkeeper Matt Prior to return to the “winning culture” which took them to the top of the county game.

Prior told The Argus of his frustrations at seeing Sussex fall from power and go “a bit soft” and said he would love to get involved.

Andrew spoke to The Argus before Prior’s comments emerged.

He admitted the county lacked consistency in all competitions last season, his first at Hove.

But he said: “I think we are very clear with the direction of the club.

“Keith has done a great job with the signing of all our young players and extending the senior players who want to be here.

“That is important. We want senior players who want to be here and we want them to take the club forward. I think they are excited as well.

“I always look at it when you are looking at a team – can you see the future?

“You want to be successful of course.

“All of our fans and members want to be successful today, of course they do. We all do.

“Sometimes you have to build that success and, if you keep searching for short term success, all you do in the long term is keep chopping and changing.

“You actually make things worse for the club, not better.”

Asked whether Sussex could return to the top table of county cricket, Andrew replied: “Definitely, I think that is what we are all working towards.

“It is always very interesting when a county has an extraordinary period of success, like Sussex had between 2003 and 2009.

“It was unprecedented in the history of the club.

“Sometimes periods of success like that can be a bit of a burden on an organisation.

“People keep harking back to what it was like when Murray Goodwin and Mushy (Mushtaq Ahmed) were here.

“The number of times I’ve had to say, ‘Well, actually that is great but we ain’t going get Murray Goodwin and Mushy back – they’ve gone’.

“It’s a bit like England and 1966, you just keep talking about it.

“You have got to look forward and that is what we are trying to do.

“We are trying to say, ‘Forget about the past, forget about what has happened in the past three or four years as well, where there has been a lot of chopping and changing’.

“We need a bit stability, we need to build with our own players again and try to recreate that Sussex feel with some overseas players as well we bring in.

“Decisions were made about David Wiese and Stiaan Van Zyl and they both performed well at times last year.

“We want them to step forward as well in the next few years alongside what appear to be some very talented young players.”

Andrew said Sussex are debt-free and on a solid financial footing.

He added: “It was quite a tough summer in some regards.

“The weather didn’t help with T20 so we were slightly down on the year before, not massively.

“The club is reasonably stable financially.

“It hasn’t got any debt. We have a solid platform to work from.

“We know there is new money coming into cricket now with this new T20 competition and that will feed through in the next five or six years.

“The club is in a really strong position.

“The foundations are very strong and what we need to do know is build on what we have got on and off the field.”

Asked what would be realistic targets for next season, Andrew said: “We have to be competitive in all competitions.

“We should be aiming to get into the knockout stages of both cup competitions.

“When you get there, it is one game and you play well on the day and you are in the semi.

“We got very close to that this year.

“Worcester went up as champions (in the Championship) and we beat them home and away.”