THE signing of Danny Mayor, as well as being a great coup for Bury, tells me that the club should fear no-one next season.

For the first time in ages, Bury can compete financially with their rivals.

So I don’t think it matters who is coming down or who is coming up, I think the Shakers will go into the next campaign with a squad more than capable of vying for promotion.

Whether that ends up being automatic promotion or through the play-offs, I think they will be there or thereabouts.

For the record, I don’t think any of the clubs coming down from League One will have the finances or structures in place to be a real threat to Bury.

For me, their main rivals will be Northampton. I think for the club to tempt manager Chris Wilder from Oxford – who were in the play-offs at the time – shows that he must have been promised money to spend.

Bury will also have to compete with the clubs that fail to make it out of the play-offs.

If Fleetwood don’t get up this time I am confident Andy Pilling will back them again next season, and I think Southend will have a decent budget too.

But the Shakers now have the finances and the structures in place off the pitch to mean that they should fear nobody on it.

The real challenge for manager David Flitcroft will be to get his pre-season right so they are ready to hit the ground running.

It already seems apparent that the chairman has a whole host of deals lined up for the summer, so Flicker should have a very competitive squad assembled by the time they return to training.

What he has to make sure is that he gets across his message on exactly how he wants them to play and the systems he wants to use.

Then Flicker will need to get the right kind of friendly matches in place to prepare his squad properly for their promotion push.

Get that spot on and I think they will be more than a match for anybody.

I guess my only regret, and one shared by many Bury fans, will be that Brian Jensen will not be returning in goal.

He has been fantastic this season and, as I stated before, I felt he deserved another deal.

It now seems clear that Flicker probably had his replacement in mind before the Southend game and only recalled him because of a lack of experience in reserve.

That is his right as manager and he will be judged on the success of the keeper he brings in. But for me, no matter what the style of play, Brian would have been a worthy number one.

This is my last column of the season. I hope the readers have enjoyed it. Have a great summer and I look forward to returning for the next campaign.