AT first it appeared to be a repair job – now Neil Lennon looks ready to take a wrecking ball to Wanderers this summer in an effort to make them winners again.

After inheriting a squad bereft of confidence from Dougie Freedman, it was to the Northern Irishman’s immense credit he picked the players off their haunches and dragged them up the table to safety.

Other clubs have tried the same thing – Lee Clark at Blackpool, Malky Mackay at Saturday’s opponents Wigan – but not achieved the desired effect.

While that jolt of form at the tail end of last year should be enough to make sure the club are playing Championship football next season, recent results hint at why more extensive changes are needed if Wanderers are to ever be anything more.

Honeymoon periods are finite. Cursed by a ridiculous run of injuries Lennon has had to patch up and make do, watch results slide and bite his lip. By his own admission, the Whites are limping to the line.

There had been the odd public comment which hinted at his dissatisfaction but it wasn’t until another late goal undid his side at Ipswich Town on Tuesday night that he really let fly.

"It is endemic the way the club has been, players drifting. I need to change it,” he seethed.

They say you learn more about your players during the bad times, and you sense Lennon doesn’t necessarily like what he has found out.

With eight games remaining it would be difficult to pick out 11 players who will definitely be a part of the manager’s first-team plans next season.

He may well crave a fresh sheet of paper to work upon, but as previous regimes have found out, moving players on is not necessarily as easy as it sounds.

Several big names, with big salaries are out of contract – Matt Mills, Andy Lonergan, Adam Bogdan, Craig Davies, Darren Pratley, Jermaine Beckford, Keith Andrews, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Emile Heskey. To part company with all of them would be unthinkable – unreasonable, even.

Yet drastic times call for drastic measures and with little resale value in his squad, Lennon will have to find funds from somewhere in the summer to bring in the players he feels he can trust.

While Wanderers have little to play for between now and May collectively, individually there is still plenty up for grabs, not least for the flurry of loan players currently on the books.

Giles Coke, Saidy Janko and Ben Amos are up for grabs in the summer, realistically so are Barry Bannan and Paddy McCarthy, while Adam Le Fondre effectively put a “for sale” sign on himself after scoring twice against Millwall at the weekend.

Rochinha wowed the 250 travelling fans at Portman Road in midweek but is still an unknown quantity, while we have yet to see much of Simeon Slavchev

Alex Baptiste could yet be brought back into the fold but it appears the ship has sailed for two of Freedman’s most costly purchases Jay Spearing and Medo Kamara, who both looking like moving on.

The hard work starts in May for Lennon and he sounds like he is looking forward to it, but first he has to guide his side over the final few yards to the line.

Victory over Wigan at the weekend would end any lingering worries and allow the sorting process to begin.

Perhaps the Latics’ woeful example is a lesson to Wanderers on what might happen if they allow things to slide any further.

Defeat wouldn’t necessarily mean the end of the world – but each disappointment seems to be steeling Lennon’s resolve to make further reaching changes.