IT sums up the transient nature of a football club that Jussi Jaaskelainen is the longest serving player on Wanderers' books.

Just four years ago, the Finland keeper was in the Bolton team that lost to Aston Villa in an agonising FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, then suffered an even more tortuous defeat at the hands of Ipswich in the Division One play-offs.

No other player in the Millennium Stadium dressing room on Sunday will be able to draw on the memory of those bitter experiences.

They have all moved on: Bergsson, Elliott, Fish, Whitlow, Warhurst, Jensen, Johansen, Johnston, Hansen, Gudjohnsen, Holdsworth, Ritchie, Passi. Jimmy Phlllips has switched to the backroom team and Gareth Farrelly has gone to Bradford on loan, having been told he has no future at the club.

By a sad, yet amazing, coincidence Ricardo Gardner was recovering from a cruciate ligament injury suffered earlier in that season, the same injury which is keeping him out of this year's final.

This time Bolton fans will be pinning their hopes on a new crop of heroes: Hunt, N'Gotty, Thome, Charlton, Nolan, Campo, Djorkaeff, Stelios, Okocha, Davies. Barness, Ba, Moreno and Frandsen, who was on his Blackburn "break" during that fateful season.

But Jaaskelainen will be there again ... the imposing figure who has been Wanderers' last line of defence for the four incredible years since Sam Allardyce sprinkled his magic dust over the Reebok.

A Bolton player for the past six years, he hardly ranks with the stalwarts of the past, who grew up at the club and stayed for the duration of their careers -- the best part of two decades in some cases. But the towering Finland international has no less affinity for the club or for the town than his illustrious predecessors.

He counts himself lucky to have been snatched from under the nose of the then Norwich City boss Mike Walker and speaks with pride that his two sons -- William and Emile -- were both born in Bolton. Quality players may have come and gone but Jaaskelainen believes the current Bolton squad is better than any he has seen since he joined Wanderers from the Finnish club VPS Vaasa in November 1997 as a raw but highly-promising 22-year-old.

"We are a Premiership team now, not a First Division team, and we have a much better chance of winning a trophy than we had four years ago. If we work hard and a bit of luck goes our way, then we can win it."

Jaaskelainen is living proof that, however talented a player is, luck often plays a part in his development.

He was originally brought to England by Norwich City but ended up being persuaded to sign for Wanderers by the then boss, Colin Todd. That ultimately led to him working with the club's goalkeeping coach Fred Barber, who has become his mentor.

"When I look back, I was very lucky I got the chance to come to Bolton -- if I hadn't come here, I would not have been working with Fred, which has been great for me and my career.

"Now I've got a cup final to look forward to. I have great personal memories of that semi-final four years ago. I remember my feelings -- it was one of my best memories, even though we lost -- so imagine how I feel now."