WANDERERS no longer find their name on the Championship’s rich-list but that does not mean they cannot bring something to the party.

There was a time when Bolton’s inflated post-Premier League budget – bankrolled by Eddie Davies - was the envy of many clubs in the second tier.

When they dropped into the division in 2012, the Whites were carrying the biggest wage bill of any club around, shelling out a whopping £37.4million in a failed attempt to bounce straight back up under Owen Coyle, and later Dougie Freedman.

Fans will need no reminder such excess came at a significant cost. And it is as a re-born club that Wanderers step back into the Championship under Phil Parkinson.

Few will expect a king’s ransom be spent on summer signings at the Macron and by the manager’s own admission, he will have to box clever against his rivals to sign targets, unable to blow them out of the water with exorbitant wages as some of his predecessors have done.

But if Huddersfield Town’s route to success showed anything last year it is that promotion does not necessarily hinge on how many millions are thrown into recruitment, more that the planning is in place. It is thought the Terriers had the Championship’s 19th highest budget of circa £17m as they gained promotion with a play-off win over Reading at Wembley.

Their trick was to tap into a German market their manager David Wagner knew well, and also bring in some key loan players from the division above.

To copy Huddersfield would be difficult, although the appointment of foreign coaches at Norwich City and Leeds United suggest some are willing to have a go.

Wanderers may have to walk before they run, and other sensible spenders such as Barnsley and Preston achieved the kind of mid-table stability Parkinson would gladly take this time around.

The division's lowest budget, owned by Burton Albion, also helped them to exceed expectations by avoiding relegation quite comfortably in the end.

In contrast, Aston Villa’s massive spending, coupled with a £40m parachute payment, was only enough to guarantee the Midlanders mid-table and despite throwing another mountain of money at it, Derby County are still unable to give the magnificent iPro Stadium the Premier League football it deserves.

Wanderers step back into a division which has been skewed further than ever before by the massive increases in TV money.

Exact figures are not yet available for their last season in the Championship but it is understood their budget was around mid-table, with estimates ranging between £18-20m, ranking them in the same ball park as Leeds, Brentford, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town and Wolves. This time around, it is expected they will trail those clubs by some distance.

In League One Wanderers got a reminder of what it was like to lead the way – boasting a budget which compared favourably with anyone else in the division, even if they didn’t want it.

Some of the contracts which had been agreed by the previous regime had become a millstone. It was not until this summer the club has been able to properly regain control of their wage expenditure and bring losses into reasonable figures.

“When we get to July we then become sustainable,” chairman Ken Anderson said in December. “We then cut our cloth accordingly, unlike the way the club has been run in the past.”

Exactly how much cloth is available to Parkinson is now the key question.

In 2015/16, 15 Championship teams spent more than 100 per cent of their turnover on wages. With so much money dripping down from parachute payments, it is likely that number will have fallen since, but the temptation to over-spend is still there for the likes of Derby and Wednesday, who have been knocking on the doors for some time now.

Wanderers will hope by securing the mainstay of last season’s promotion-winning squad and by riding on the feel-good factor around the town, they can emulate Burton, Preston and Barnsley and avoid Wigan Athletic’s immediate return to League One.

Stability may not be the sexiest word in football but considering Wanderers’ recent history, it is the most pertinent in their case.

If another season in the money-mad Championship is achieved, perhaps then Huddersfield’s example can be followed? Sensibly, of course...