Southampton will be striving to get back to when they were a Premier League regular.
Promotion has to be won first, obviously, but if the Saints were to jump straight back into the promised land of the top-flight, they would want to stick around for the foreseeable, and go against their newly obtained yo-yo status.
Before relegation came their way at the close of the 2022/23 season, Southampton had been competing at the very top of the English football pyramid non-stop since 2012.
The football landscape has changed beyond recognition
The footballing landscape has changed a lot since, with promotion up to the top division now often followed by a collapse straight back down.
But clubs such as Sunderland are looking to go against that status quo right now, having won last season's Championship playoff final.
Tonda Eckert's plucky outfit will be looking to buck that trend as well, to try and get back to their glory days as a top-flight regular.
The gulf in quality between the Premier League and the Championship is often what swallows teams whole.
Just look at former Southampton striker Adam Armstrong, the well-travelled striker has an unbelievable 91 goals on his career resume in the EFL's elite league, yet he can only muster up a paltry seven in the bright lights of the top division.
It's all about bridging this punishing gap in quality, if Eckert's men are to consolidate themselves as a Premier League side down the line.
As per Saints loanee Cyle Larin, the Canadian attacker believes that there are two players already in the Southampton ranks who would make this daunting step-up look like a walk in the park.
The duo who could make this step-up
After all, Larin has competed in some tough divisions across his varied career so far, so he knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a success.
With 86 La Liga appearances under his belt, and four goals already next to his name in England, it will be intriguing to see if Southampton try and make his signature a permanent one, in the summer.
Thankfully, the duo Larin names are permanent members of Eckert's squad, for the time being at least, in Finn Azaz and Leo Scienza.
When quizzed on who could make the cut in the Premier League by the Daily Echo, he glowingly said: "They're quality players, and they have the ability to play in the top leagues for me.
"Obviously, I've played against top players across the world, some of the best at [in the world] times. They have the quality to play in any league they want.
"And they can play in the Premier League next year if we make that jump. For them, it's just developing each day to become better and show their qualities each game.
"The more games I play with Leo, the more he knows what I like or how I want the ball or the way he makes a move. I think the more games we play, the more it will connect."
Their exceptional records in the Championship under Eckert do show off a pair of players that would be champing at the bit to prove themselves up a league, with a combined 16 goals between them in league action this season, at the time of writing.
The Brazilian has also tasted the demands of the Bundesliga, in the past, with ex-employers Heidenheim, so the Premier League won't faze him, if he were to get there imminently with Eckert and Co.
Azaz has had to work his way up the divisions, in stark contrast, having plied his trade in League Two as recently as 2022.
The Premier League is the last competitive division in England he has to tick off, with the red-hot Irishman, and Scienza, perhaps getting there with Southampton.