Will massive changes make this Bristol City's year?

With less than a month to go until the start of the new season, Bristol City fans are again wondering if this is going to be our year for achieving promotion to England's top flight after an absence of 46 years.

There have been massive changes at the club over the past five months with a new CEO, the sacking of boss Gerhard Struber, Roy Hodgson's managerial swansong, the appointment of James Ellis as sporting director, the departure of playing legend Brian Tinnion as technical director and the arrival of Michael Skubala as manager.

Are fan expectations more elevated than they have been for a while as City approach their 12th successive Championship season? On balance I would say yes, even though the hierarchy at the club say this is the start of a three-year plan to achieve Premier League status.

My mildly positive view is based on the fact that City have done a lot of their transfer activity early rather than in the latter stages of the window.

First through the door was goalkeeper Sam Tickle from Wigan while former England Under-21 midfielder Sam Greenwood was signed for an undisclosed fee from Polish side Pogon Szczecin.

Dutch midfielder Gibson Yah might be seen as a bit of a punt with fewer than 100 appearances in his career but the same cannot be said of Jed Wallace, who has played around 400 Championship games. Released by West Brom, critics might say, at 32, his best days are behind him. That may be true but in my view he is a valuable addition to the squad.

The next signing which came totally out of the blue was defender Lisav Eissat from Israeli side Maccabi Haifa. He is a more than useful addition to a defence where Luke McNally's absence through an ACL injury is going beyond 18 months and Rob Atkinson's fitness is also open to question, the same being true for Rob Dickie.

If you ask any City fan what the priority was this summer transfer window they would say up front. Giving Sam Bell a new three-year contract was expected given his decent showing through Hodgson's period in charge. Emil Riis managed nine Championship goals last season but that is nowhere near enough for a main striker.

The supporters can have no cause for complaint when you look at the club's efforts so far to address this issue. A substantial fee has been paid to Plymouth Argyle to bring in Swiss forward Lorent Tolaj. The 24-year-old found the net 17 times last season and looks a good signing.

At the same time, City have been trying to agree a deal with Leyton Orient for their striker Dom Ballard, who was League One's top scorer last season with 23 goals. If this doesn't happen, expect City to turn to Exeter's Jayden Wareham.

As things stand, with these summer additions City have moved into net spend territory, if you consider the January signings of Tomi Horvat and Noah Eile and add back the fees received for Zak Vyner and Anis Mehmeti, the Antoine Semenyo 'windfall' and the Sinclair Armstrong and Ross McCrorie money.

A further bonus could come the club's way if Alex Scott makes a summer move from Bournemouth. On this basis, if you take a cup half-empty view the club have not exactly been splashing the cash but what would make this a great summer window would be to get Max Bird and Jason Knight to agree new contracts and Scott Twine to sign an extension.

If this does not happen, then certainly Knight and Bird need to be sold now as their value will only tumble further by the time the January window opens before they walk for nothing next June. It would be interesting to see how much of their combined fees is reinvested.