So we start not just a new season but a new era.

We kick off just 69 days after one of the most gut-wrenchingly painful football experiences any of us City fans have had to suffer for many years. Truth be known, that feeling I experienced, walking out of the Millennium Stadium with tears streaming down my face like a kid who'd had his ice cream taken off him, has not quite left me yet.

Normally, a summer is enough to induce voluntary amnesia and make me look forward to the new season with relish untainted by disappointment just a few months earlier. But this time I confess I find myself praying for something to seize on in the early stages, to bring back that familiar rose-tinted enthusiasm that I usually love about the start of any new campaign.

Normally, for an hour or so, travelling to the ground and sitting in the stands in bright sunshine before the start of the first game, with the sheet wiped clean and crap, tinny-sounding music on the PA system, anything seems possible. With the sight of the ground and familiar faces around me, comfortingly familiar yet novel enough for new details and changes to be noticed, the world is beautiful. For that period it is possible to believe the Israelis and Palestinians will come together in unity, famine will be abolished and Ian Holloway could pursue a career as a Chippendale. It is a wonderful, once-a-year experience of irrational hope that is, inevitably, shattered the moment the match starts and reality sets in, triggering the heaving, yawing emotions that shape our moods and actions for nine months, often to the frustration of family and friends.

Yet, deep down I fear it won't be quite the same this time. I worry that at 5.45pm each Saturday I will be unable to stop myself looking at the scorelines of Brighton, QPR and Plymouth in the ridiculously-renamed Coca Cola Championship and thinking angrily: “That should have been us.” It is one of Tinman's first tasks to erase that haunting feeling from fans' minds by convincing us that something new, exciting and special is going to develop in front of our eyes at Ashton Gate.

What I do know is, that without the sweeping changes and rebuilding that have come with his appointment, facing the new season would have been unbearable.

I always said Danny should go if he failed to win promotion last season. Quite frankly, if he had stayed I would have found it easier to sip an Ashton Gate beverage without scheduling a trip to the burns unit than to look forward with hope at the new campaign.

And I suspect crowds would have dwindled as some fans decided they could not get themselves excited about more of the same.

However, Tinman is already providing more than enough intriguing storylines for us to follow over the next nine months of the soap opera that is Bristol City FC.

Already it looks like he is going to give more youngsters the chance to shine, giving us the chance to follow the undoubtedly varying fortunes of a new generation of Academy graduates.

Will there be a gem hidden among them? City's own Wayne Rooney who can emerge from oblivion to deliver us the promotion all of us from the chairman down deserve?

Clayton Fortune's opportunity to stake a claim is long overdue, and there's a buzz about Joe Anyinsah that leaves me intrigued to see what he can do in a first team shirt.

Hopefully, too, Leroy Lita will overcome his worrying off-the-field problems to fulfil the promise we have all seen in him.

I was frustrated at his lack of opportunity under Wilson , but it seems Tins is more willing to fully blood our Academy grads.

Ryan Harley, Sekani Simpson and Darren Hawkins (who looked promising pre-season last year only to vanish under Danny) may get a look-in over the season.

And away from the first team (for the moment) we can also follow the fortunes of Academy wonderkid Scott Golbourne, who has already played twice for England under-17s.

While it's far from a guarantee he'll become a star, it is yet another sign of the quality that is coming out of our youth set-up, and it never ceases to amaze me how some people suggest we should abandon it.

Personally, I also can't wait for the return of Amankwaah. If Big Kev can stay fit and rediscover his form, he has the skill and unpredictable ability to set games on fire and propel us to promotion.

Tinman's re-jigging of the coaching set up, with Walshie and co. getting more involved in sharing their areas of expertise with the first team squad, makes plenty of sense.

And I am also encouraged by the new gaffer's dabblings in the transfer market.

It does bother me that names of targets are becoming public. In my opinion, Danny's tactics of keeping schtum about the names of any signings was a better, if more boring, policy. I fear Tinman's urge to be open with fans, though admirable, could backfire.

However, Paul Heffernan looks a steal, and from what I've seen pre-season Bradley Orr is shaping up as a decent scoop too.

But I'm mindful that we were saying the same about Miller and Wilkshire this time last year, and to be honest, as yet, neither has had quite the impact I expected.

Jamie Smith also seems a sound and reliable, if not spectacular, replacement for Carey.

And it's fantastic news that City have managed to hold on to Tommy Doherty and Danny Coles, who are likely to be two of our most crucial players in the coming season. They were the two I felt we must hang on to over the summer if we were to push for promotion again, though it's good Matt Hill ended up staying too.

And although I was disappointed to see Louis Carey going, I bear no hard feelings. He served us well for nine years, and in my opinion has a point when he complained that newcomers from outside command better deals than the Bristol-bred players. He spoke out honestly, yet respectfully, in the local press, as he was entitled to do. As an experienced, talented senior player who has conducted himself well on and off the pitch, he had every right to ask for a deal on a par with our top earners. When Steve Lansdown made it clear we could not afford to pay any more than what was on offer, he exercised his right to seek a better deal elsewhere. I don't call that disloyalty, and it disappoints me that so many people have slagged him off for going. He played his heart out whenever he wore a City shirt, and that's good enough for me. He never dissed the club, just highlighted something he perceived as unfair, and I wish him well.

As for Aaron Brown, well he made his bed and now it's up to him to lay in it. Seeking another club when you're injured strikes me as a bit of a gamble, but if it comes off then fine. If not, I'll not be staining my new City top with tears.

My one big worry for the new season is Christian Roberts. I've always rated him as a quick-footed, natural goalscorer, yet even at the pre-season match against Yeovil, where he scored a beauty from a free kick, I was disappointed to hear the relentless abuse he gets from some section of fans.

Last season, he was omitted from the first team for much of the season, yet surprise, surprise, when he came in towards the end his goals were prolific and crucial.

He may look out of form pre-season, but I would hate to see him leave the club.

We also have a fully fit and reintegrated Murray to enjoy.

In fact, now I come to think of it the more I write, the more I realise that the story threads set up for the coming season are whetting my appetite after all.

It's all set up for primetime drama as the mixture of old favourites and newly-introduced characters develop in front of our eyes and we follow their fates week in, week out.

Let's just hope it's not as depressing as EastEnders.