After a seven-year wait, Bolton are back in the Championship.
It has been a long old slog to get back here, and while there is plenty of optimism in the air under boss Steven Schumacher, Wanderers will have to pull their finger out to avoid their return to the second tier being a brief one.
Without wanting to be too negative before Saturday’s opener against Preston North End, the reality is that Bolton are starting the season weaker than they finished the last.
Amario Cozier-Dubery has gone back to Brighton for obvious reasons, while Mason Burstow, Ibrahim Cissoko, Marcus Forss, Jonny Kenny and Corey Blackett-Taylor have also departed and haven’t been replaced. Yet.
That has been the overwhelming theme of pre-season – Bolton need attacking reinforcements.
If there was any doubt over that, the cup defeat by Sheffield Wednesday made it blindingly obvious to any casual observer.
We controlled large parts of the game and looked bright early on, with new signing Gaizka Larrazabal looking dangerous on the wing.
Schumacher’s men created chances, but once again struggled to turn that pressure into goals. In the end, there was just one shot on target.
That lack of cutting edge is nothing new. Last season, we broke a club record for the most draws in a season, with too many chances spurned in games.
The decision to allow players such as Forss, Burstow and Blackett-Taylor to leave surely means there are several irons in the fire, and there has to be trust in the process, given how successful it has been to this point.
It may take some getting used to for Bolton’s expectant fan base, but we are no longer one of the division’s big dogs.
The money sloshing around at the top of the Championship is eye-watering compared to what Bolton can offer.
Fortunately, Schumacher is no stranger to working under tight financial constraints – and, more importantly, working well under them.
The Bolton boss said there were more positives than negatives to take from Hillsborough and had Xavier Simons not seen red on the hour mark following an uncharacteristic lash out, we may well have been in the next round.
It was the second successive season in which Wanderers suffered an early cup defeat to Wednesday – and we all know how the last campaign unfolded.
This latest setback, then, should hardly define the year ahead. But it should serve as a warning.
We’ve waited a long time to get back to the Championship, and the club now needs to get a wiggle on if they are to stay there.