The joy of promotion and sense of achievement was mixed with the knowledge that much hard work would have to be done for the club to stay in the top flight. Neil Thompson and Paul Wilkinson left the club, with Wilson bringing in several international calibre players, Slovenia captain Ales Krizan, South African Eric Tinkler, Welshman Darren Barnard and for a club record fee of £1,500,000 Macedonian striker Georgi Hristov. Wilson also brought in a reserve keeper, German Lars Leese from Bayer Leverkusen.