AFTER the most traumatic period in its modern-day history, Wanderers have lived to fight another day.

But what lessons should the current regime learn from the mistakes that have been made before?

Though there remain plenty of unanswered questions about the direction the club will take from here on in, we have compiled five things the new owners must address quickly if they are to prove a success.

OPEN LINE OF COMMUNICATION

From previous owner Eddie Davies to the board members who many Bolton fans couldn’t pick out of a line-up, the lack of communication from the powers-that-be has been laughable in recent times.

Former chairman Phil Gartside refused to speak in public for several months before his illness forced him to withdraw from the role – but in his pomp he had been a reliable mouthpiece for the club in more successful times.

Dean Holdsworth is no stranger to the public eye and comes across well on camera and in print.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Crowd numbers have held up well in the Championship this season but the club know they will take a hit in League One – particularly in the shape of away attendances. Keeping the core support is absolutely paramount if the club is going to operate on a healthy budget.

Get the players out into the community, be more visible, give supporters a chance to reclaim their club. And for heaven’s sake – concentrate on the football and not all the global brand fluff that accumulated during the Premier League years under Gartside.

RECRUITMENT, RECRUITMENT, RECRUITMENT

For the last 12 months Wanderers’ scouting network has been practically non-existent. Jim Melrose, who was brought in by Neil Lennon having worked with him at Celtic and Manchester City, was sidelined by the previous board and that must have affected how widely the manager could spread his net when looking for new players last summer. Finances have also played a major part as the diverse network of scouts that the club once had has been reduced significantly.

Wanderers need to identify a brand, based on the football being taught outside first team level. Academy products like Rob Holding, Zach Clough and Josh Vela should be the benchmark for the players coming through and also the ones the club looks to import.

Learning from the errors made when the Whites dropped from the Premier League to the Championship, all contracts should be sustainable and, ideally, incentive based, rather than weighted towards a basic salary.

LEARN WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BOLTON WANDERERS

Under Bruce Rioch’s stewardship in the nineties players were encouraged to live close to the town and that also continued to an extent under Colin Todd. Both managers realised the significance of understanding the local mood, not being able to shy away in the Cheshire suburbs where reminders of failure would be few and far between.

To bring this back might help to reduce some of the distance felt between the supporters and the current group of players.

Anyone who has walked around the inside of the Macron Stadium, or the lucky few to have toured the training ground, will have noted in recent years that reminders of the club’s past have been scaled back. While a great job was done redesigning the décor in the North Stand to reflect the Burnden days, today’s squad get very few reminders of the heroes they are looking to emulate once they have strolled past the great Nat Lofthouse outside the stadium.

Reminders of Lofthouse, McGinlay, Okocha, Djorkaeff, Campo, Banks, Hartle and Bergsson should be staring these guys straight in the face.

DON’T SHY AWAY FROM THE BIG DECISIONS

The departure of Neil Lennon this week shows that Holdsworth and Co are not afraid to be decisive, and that is a good start.

Many would argue the previous manager should have gone at Christmas when his personal indiscretions hit the headlines.

Owen Coyle and Dougie Freedman also endured death by a thousand cuts as they lost the faith of fans.