IT'S almost here - the start of nine months of fret, thud and hopefully more than just a few cheers.

Hear the clatter of the studs, catch the welcome waft of fried onions from a battalion of burger kiosks, feel the sheen of this season's latest colours on summer-blotched skin.

Each of the 72 clubs in the Nationwide League will spend the final few days leading up to Saturday's kick-off to the 2003-04 season dusting down their annual expectations, buffing up their August anticipation of success.

But none of the 72 will have the same mixture of tingle and trepidation as York City.

The Minstermen enter a watershed season, one which could prove the defining campaign in their entire history.

It's not just the relative youth of their new player-manager Chris Brass. Since his radical appointment as the 21st boss of the club, he has impressed - and continues to do so - a litany of observers with an authority, assurance and ambition that far belies his 28 years of age at tackling such an onerous job.

If there ever is going to be a twenty-something to succeed in the art of managing a professional club then it will be the new York City leader. If anyone is going to be able to galvanise a squad, also heavily reliant on youth, then Brass is the man with the desired mettle.

Indeed, the more I see and hear of the Minstermen's player-manager, the less the nagging feeling that he will dip below what is required. Given an even break, then Brass will prevail, not fail. Of that I am as certain as you can be in a sport of turmoil and mesmerising switch-back fortunes.

But for all Brass' commendable attributes, he is at the helm of a club still enveloped by uncertainty over its actual future.

The rightly feted intervention of the Supporters' Trust and its subsequent buy-out of the club to prevent it sliding into oblivion was one of the more heart-warming success stories of last season.

Supporters, sickened by the actions of landlords Bootham Crescent Holdings, who decided to put Bootham Crescent up for sale, quickened their reflexes in astonishing style to give further credence to the belief that the life-blood of any football club is not simply cash, but more about the undying passion of its LOYAL followers.

Since taking over, the new City board have worked Trojan-like throughout the summer. To have kept the club afloat was itself no mean feat, yet the board have also attracted a healthy sponsorship deal with York-based company Phoenix Software and have further fired the imagination with a unique kit tie-up with sportswear giants Nike. It has been a close-season of high achievement.

But there is still a spectre at the feast. As City steel themselves for what is likely to be their final season at Bootham Crescent, they have, as yet, no other home to go to.

The proposed move to Huntington Stadium is still more up in the air than a picture-attracting leap from camera-shy Rio Ferdinand on to the back of the latest Manchester United marksman.

More hours of bargaining have to be done, not least in trying to shift the now entrenched position of the City of York Council, whose initial offer of assistance has undergone an undesirable 'U'-turn.

City fans have gone to the well so much in support of their club that anyone would think those resources have been drawn from right through the centre of the earth down to Australia.

Yet they will have to summon more gallons of commitment in the months ahead, particularly if matters on the field do not get off to the brightest of starts. That's when the faith will have to burn most fervently.

Updated: 11:07 Tuesday, August 05, 2003