Saracens winger David Strettle has been hugely impressed by the club’s signings in pre-season and believes the new acquisitions can help fire the Men in Black to a different level this campaign.

Sarries have already brought in props James Johnston and Richard Barrington, number eight Billy Vunipola and centre Tim Streather ahead of the new season while versatile Argentinian centre Marcelo Bosch is expected to join from Biarritz in the autumn.

Strettle played alongside Johnston at Harlequins in 2009/2010 and toured with 20-year-old Vunipola to Argentina with England this summer.

“JJ (Johnston) is a hell of a talent - when you look at the size of him you can see he can add some real power and strength to our pack,” Strettle said.

“I think we’re very lucky at Sarries because sometimes people forget how powerful some of the guys are because they’re so mobile but it’s important for us to progress and signing James has definitely done that.”

On Vunipola, Strettle continued: “You can see how good a player Billy is even at such a high a level as England and it’s amazing because he’s got so much more to come.

“Everyone can see how good he is at training – he’s got so much potential - I mean look at how much Mako has come on in 18 months and Mako wasn’t playing for England when he first came like Billy is.

“He’s really got so much potential and you can tell everyone at the club is excited about that.”

Vunipola and Johnston are both likely to play important roles in the Sarries first team this season while Streather and Barrington may be introduced more gradually and Strettle believes the squad overall is stronger than last year.

“Pre-season is always exciting with the new season coming up and you see lots of new faces. Everyone’s had a good break and is raring to go,” he said.

“We’ve made some great signings – Saracens always strengthen the squad each year - we had a good squad last year but we’ve gone up a notch now.

“You can see from training we’re going up a level and hopefully we can transfer that on to the pitch when the season starts.”

The Men in Black came close to silverware last season in both major competitions but were knocked out of the Heineken Cup by Toulon in the last four and most disappointingly, suffered a shock home defeat to Northampton in the Premiership semi-final.

When asked if the players have moved on from the losses or use them as motivation, Strettle said: “A bit of both really, you can’t dwell on it in the sense that you have to concentrate on other things but it’s always in the back of your mind – it shows you have to be fully focused all the time and you can’t take anything for granted.

“Obviously it was massively frustrating but if anything you’ve just got to take it and learn from it and move on for next season and then hopefully when you do actually succeed it makes it that little bit sweeter.”