With a blizzard of high-profile signings arriving - mostly back from Dundalk - and the hefty financial muscle being provided by billionaire chairman Philip O'Doherty, it had been assumed that Derry City would be in position to challenge for the league title more or less immediately.
However, manager Ruaidhrí Higgins, who in 2021 oversaw their rise from bottom of the table after six games to fourth spot and European football by season's end, has played down expectations of an immediate title challenge, insisting the club have a huge gap to bridge to catch Shamrock Rovers.
It's a full quarter of a century this year since Derry City last lifted the Premier Division title, Felix Healy, former playing hero from the Treble winning vintage of 1988-89, guiding the Candystripes to league glory in 1996-97.
The current Republic of Ireland manager carried them close in the mid-noughties, with successive runner-up finishes in an era decorated by Cup success and European adventures.
However, a third league title has thus far eluded Derry but now chairman Philip O'Doherty, who sold his engineering business last year in a deal worth over a €1 billion, has invested heavily in the club to try to make it happen.
They're not, according to Higgins, going to be content with a Jack Walker/Blackburn style one-hit wonder either but are targeting sustained and consistent success.
"My very first conversation with Philip, I knew exactly what I was working with last season and I knew exactly what I was going to be working with this season," Higgins told RTÉ Sport at this week's League of Ireland launch in Clarehall.
"I know he sold his business after I took the job but regardless, the budget was always going to be there. We set our targets on who we wanted to bring in and we were relatively successful. The plan has not changed from the day I took the job."
The plan, Higgins says, was to build a title-winning team but "over a longer period of time. Not straight away. You have to be ambitious, of course, and we'll try to win every game that we play.
"But there's Pat's, Bohs, Dundalk, Sligo, there's loads of clubs in similar situations as us, and to make up that gap is probably unrealistic at this stage but it's important that we close that gap."
So, no tilt at the title envisaged in 2022?
"You can say I'm downplaying expectations or whatever. But I have to be realistic. We've brought in good players, of course we have.
"But it's taken Stephen Bradley a few years to build his squad, we're no different. We've a vast number of points to make up. To say we can challenge to win the league this year is probably slightly unrealistic but we'll do our best to close the gap significantly.
"There's huge potential but we're also very aware it's going to be a process. We're trying to give long-term contracts to make sure it's sustainable over a longer period of time.
"Instant success isn't a be-all and end-all. The chairman has been very clear from day one that he wants us to be successful over a longer period of time and not just a quick fix."
At the end of January, Scottish striker Matty Smith, St Pat's top scorer last season, became the latest flashy recruit to the cause, joining goalkeeping teammate Brian Maher and the Dundalk trio of Michael Duffy, Patrick McEleney and Will Patching at the Ryan MacBride Brandywell. Wide player Brandon Kavanagh has also being enticed up north from Shamrock Rovers.
"We got a large percentage of our targets. I think it helped that I've worked with four or five of them previously and I have strong relationships with them. We had to be patient with the Matty Smith one, we had to wait a while for that one. But we've been quite successful on the targets that we set out to get.
"Brandon, I knew he was a good player. But he's been hugely impressive in pre-season. A real street footballer, a continental type player. A great lad and I'm delighted we've managed to get him.
"I think he can score more goals and create more goals. I think we need to get him into areas of the pitch where he's really effective. He's got really good players around him now and they're all on the same wavelength."
Taking a longer-term view, Derry City have begun tying down their younger players and academy players on longer term contracts.
16-year-old defender Daithí McCallion was offered a three-year professional deal this month, following fellow academy players Caolan McLaughlin, Brendan Barr and Evan McLaughlin last year.
This is part of Derry's vision to keep their best young players at the club. While Higgins acknowledges their limitations in terms of preventing players joining top-rank sides in the Premier League, he does hope the deals could potentially keep them at the Brandywell in preference to a middling English Football League club.
"We have to protect the players and we have to protect the club. And it's important that we identify early who our best young players are. That's based on conversations with academy staff.
"I think we're on the way to doing that. We certainly don't want to lose our best young players to mid-ranking clubs in the UK.
"You cannot stop a young player - it's very, very difficult - going to the likes of a top-end Premier League club. But I think we can try our best to stop him going to the middle-ranking clubs (in UK)"
