PICTURES of girders being bolted into place offered the first tangible sign that the new stadium - years in the planning - is no longer a pipedream.

Not that there has ever been any serious doubt in recent months but now there is something there for all to see.

From August next year, Wanderers will have a futuristic, 25,000 all-seater show-home that will pitch them into the forefront of modern stadium architecture.

It could also provide the impetus needed to propel the club out of the 'yo-yo' trap and back into the big time.

Premier pundit Tommy Docherty, who knew Wanderers as one of the nation's most respected sides in his playing days, reckons they have a great chance of bouncing straight back into the Premiership. But he is not alone in forecasting another season of torment, if they do manage book their ticket to the top flight.

He admits, however, that the new stadium could make all the difference.

"I think Bolton is a lovely club and I want them to get up and stay up," says the straight-talking Doc. "But you have to be realistic and I don't see Bolton being any different than Manchester City, QPR or Leicester.

"Leicester have gone back up and they are struggling; City would struggle if they went back and so would QPR and Bolton.

"I'm sorry, they just don't have the resources to compete with the big clubs. But going to a new stadium might just give Bolton a different outlook. If they are back in the Premiership when they move to the new ground and they can fill the place with regular gates of 25,000, add that to the Sky TV money they'll get and they might just make a go of it.

"They'll have to be doing the business though. It doesn't matter what you do off the field, it's results on the park that matter. That's the biggest commercial gimmick of the lot!"

The Doc was expanding on views he first expressed on his Piccadilly 1152 Soccer Surgery when he was at Burnden for the recent Wanderers-Stoke clash.

Coincidentally, Stoke full-back Nigel Worthington offered a similar view. "I don't know what division Bolton will be in next season ..." the experienced former Sheffield Wednesday defender remarked, "but I'm sure they'll be in Division One the season after!"

The arguments would be soul-destroying for anyone who takes such predictions seriously but the upside is that, if they do get back, Wanderers will be doubly-determined to make a better go of it second time round.

You would hope they wouldn't suffer the same cruel fate (losing their manager well into the close season) or make the same mistakes (opting for a joint management concept was doomed to fail).

Docherty would be more confident of a rosy future for Wanderers if they could break out of the trap of being manoeuvred, for whatever reason, into selling their best players - McAteer, Stubbs and Curcic all having left for 'bigger' clubs to satisfy their ambitions.

"Matt Busby taught me that if you sell your best players, you've no chance!" explains the former Old Trafford boss, who bounced back from relegation with Manchester United in the Seventies and went on to win the FA Cup.

"Bolton sold Curcic, who I thought was a really good player. It doesn't really matter what the reasons were for him leaving. If Bolton was a big club he wouldn't have wanted to go to Villa.

"But I think they've got a smashing player in the big blond boy in the middle (Frandsen). If they only paid £350,000 for him it was robbery.

"I've seen Bolton play four times recently and they're a well-organised, workmanlike side. It's very early days but I think they've got a chance.

"But if they get up, I think they'll struggle for goals, unless they bring other strikers in, and they don't have the strength in depth. I look along their subs bench and I don't see the sort of quality you'd be looking for in the Premier League. I look at Manchester City's Reserves and I don't see anything I'd be interested in if I was a Premier League manager.

"Look at Manchester United and they've four, maybe five internationals on their bench. That's the difference.

"I hope I'm totally wrong. I'd love all the local teams to be up there. For sentimental reasons I'd love Preston to be a big club but I don't see it happening.

"I don't even see Blackburn as a big club - even with all the money that Jack Walker's spent."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.