Former Liverpool striker El Hadji Diouf has come and gone, but East Malaysian side Sabah are hopeful of earning promotion to the Super League this season.
And club legend James Wong wants to help them as four new imports come in for the 2016 Malaysia Premier League (MPL) campaign.
Midfielders Dedi Kusnandar (Indonesia) and Marco Tulio Lopes Silva (Brazil) plus striker Prince Nnanke (Nigeria) and defender Igor Cerina (Croatia) have all signed on for the new season.
And behind the scenes, James and his ex-strike partner Hassan Sani, have been appointed assistant managers in support of head coach Vjeran Simunic.
"Slowly but surely we will revive Sabah football," James told The Star.
"The two of us were invited to help out and we felt that we could share our expertise with the young players. We will not disrupt the main training sessions. We will have our own one-on-one workouts with the players."
For James, it is a return to the state side after an absence of more than 30 years. The 64-year-old helped Malaysia qualify for the 1980 Olympics after scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over South Korea in a Kuala Lumpur qualifier, earning the nickname 'King James'.
Sabah finished sixth in the 2015 Premier League, well off the pace in the pursuit of the automatic promotion spots. He said that it would again not be easy to finish in the top two this season.
"It's tough because Sabah have retained only six players from last year's squad and those retained are not even regulars," he said.
"The rest are basically newcomers or from the President's Cup team. But you never know what can happen," said James.
Diouf began his Sabah career in fine style last season but fell out with the management midway through the season and was stripped of the captaincy.
High hopes are held for new recruit Kusnandar who caught the eye for Indonesia in last year's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore.
The former Indonesia U21 player of the year scored the winning goal for his nation in a youth international away to Singapore in 2014.
"Who knows, maybe we can help inspire these young boys to improve on the finer parts of their game," Wong said. "For instance, analysing what is missing in their game ... when to run, where to position themselves and others."
Sabah open their 2016 MPL campaign away to UiTM FC on Feb. 12.