Why this has to be the season Portsmouth deliver promotion against Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic & Co

Meanwhile, the Championship gets underway this weekend with a cast list of heavy hitters to more than justify its reputation as Europe’s fifth strongest league.

The second tier arguably looks as powerful as it’s ever been as big names enter from above and below, but here in League One an opportunity is presenting itself to those with ambition.

That’s not to say a smooth path lies ahead to success for those who will take the spoils next May. We all know that won’t be the case.

Experience tells us it’s a journey fraught with hazards and a full gambit of emotions to test the mettle of even the most resilient of souls.

Nonetheless, there appears to be the clearest route to success in the third tier for many a year. And it’s why now has to be the time for Pompey.

Take the teams coming down, traditionally powerful foes and obvious contenders for success.

Wigan find themselves coming out of another period of turmoil, one which has cost them eight points and is still being felt as they lose Jack Whatmough and Jamie McGrath over contract breaches.

Expect Reading to face a similar sanction for further non-payment of wages, which cost them six points last term. Elsewhere, Barnsley went within one game of the Championship, but have been hit with a string of charges pertaining to their ownership between 2017 and 2022.

Peterborough would always be viewed as a serious contender, and that could still be the case, but are going through a period of transition with a string of players transfer listed at the end of last season - including prized asset Jonson Clarke-Harris.

Derby present the most formidable opposition on paper with Bolton regrouping and adding to a squad who had a successful 2022-23 campaign.

There are others John Mousinho has a beady eye on, including the likes of Oxford United and this weekend’s opening opponents Bristol Rovers. Don’t discount Charlton finally waking up, too.

The reasoned view within the Pompey camp is no one will truly have a handle on how things will shape up until around the start of October, by which time they would have traversed a presentable opening and much sterner tests through September.

It’s part of Mousinho’s lot to keep the pressure off his players, so the attention on his quotes regarding ambition and what represents success and failure this week was slightly unnecessary. It’s a stance virtually every manager takes from Pepe Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp down.

Paul Cook memorably tore up the manager’s handbook with some bullish statements about promotion at the start of the 2015-16 season. After play-off failure, it was a position he refused to return on the eve of that memorable following campaign.

We aren’t bound by the same constraints, however, so here goes: promotion is the requirement.

The simple reality of Pompey’s own circumstances and seven seasons in League One purgatory is reason enough for that demand.

But trying to get out of this godforsaken land in a year’s time will present a much, much larger challenge.

A glance at what is likely to be the top of League Two underlines that fact, it’s not hyperbole to suggest it could be a tougher scrap than the division above them.

Wrexham’s tale now needs no further explanation, while Notts County came up from the National League behind them on a whopping 107 points.

Stockport’s muscle saw them pay Kyle Wooton wages Pompey couldn’t match 12 months ago - and they’ve now added a Championship-quality marquee signing in Nick Powell. Salford’s financial strength is well established.

The deep Championship line-up makes the potential for sides of deep resources to drop out come May - League One is not a division to be hanging around in for much longer.

A lot has changed since Pompey entered this division six years ago.

Interest rates were 0.25 per cent, things were going well for the Tories as Theresa May called a snap election after the Brexit process started and Anthony Joshua looked invincible as he blasted out Wladimir Klitschho at Wembley. Yet here we are with Pompey starting out with the same challenge as we did back then.

What comes next will be tumultuous, there will be bile spat, no doubt a few boos and social media meltdowns along the way.

But the man ultimately tasked with bringing the good times back down Frogmore Road, has seen how his new home is one of those rare places in English football where irresistible momentum can quickly gather.

The challenge is to ensure more of those dark moments we will inevitably face once again are finally put to bed next May. That, they undoubtedly will, amid success.