THE Premier League was supposed to be a world of dreams for Hull City when winning promotion at Wembley back in 2008, but in the end it turned into a living nightmare.
After the highs of those early first season wins against Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle and Fulham, came a scrap for survival, then relegation, and almost the complete demise of the club.
With no funding from the top and a crippling list of creditors banging on the door, the Premier League adventure almost marked the beginning of the end for Hull City AFC.
That was, of course, until Assem and Ehab Allam stepped forward and incredibly agreed to see £27m of their own money disappear in one night, simply to ensure the club survived.
Two and a half years later, with their financial commitment now topping £66m, it is they who are now leading the Tigers back to the top.
And this time, they are promising their leadership will ensure Hull City's Premier League second coming will be one to make the club bigger, better and stronger.
"We need to be sensible," was vice-chairman Ehab Allam's immediate response to the approach needed by all at the club.
"We have the experience of the last time at the Premier League, obviously not under our leadership, but we were involved as sponsors.
"It needs to be a steady, sensible strategy. Look at the last time, we were in the top 10 and everybody got carried away and there was that short, sharp shock a few months later as the club struggled to stay up.
"We need to be level headed, keep our cool and just be sensible, but obviously our intention has been to get there and to stay there."
If fans have any concerns over a possible repeat for the Tigers, the Allams point to an impressive track record of success.
They have delivered what they promised, but their rapid turnaround of the Tigers' fortunes has been far from plain sailing.
Tough decisions have been made, none more so than just over 12 months ago when the pair rode into stormy waters by dismissing manager Nick Barmby and head of football Adam Pearson on the same day.
It brought stinging criticism, both from fans and some sections of the media, with claims made that the club would start to fall down the ladder.
Relegation was a more likely scenario in most fans' minds rather than promotion, but in changing the club structure and, most importantly, appointing Bruce, the Allams set the ball rolling for the club's most successful season ever.
"We had difficulty last year and we knew many of the fans were against us, but it never changed our minds and we stuck to our decisions," said club chairman Assem.
"Until now, I hope the fans realise we have been right.
"The simple fact is, being in the Premier League will never be like before under us.
"More than having the experience of what happened under the previous owners, we have our own experience in business.
"We will run it as a business and stick to our business principles which have been tested and proven, both at Hull City and at our generators business.
"The club is run on business principles, and we stick to our guns.
"We study all of our decisions very carefully.
"We know the decisions are being made for the good of the club. We make decisions with very careful consideration and then when you have done that you have to stick with them, no matter if you are criticised.
"I am a big believer that men are not for turning."
Hailed as being worth £120m to the club, all eyes will now fall upon the Allams and Bruce over the summer to see just how much of their promotion windfall is spent on squad strengthening.
The Allams readily accept Bruce must be strongly supported in the transfer market once again.
But with their manager already stressing he won't be putting the club in danger by looking for £15m signings, it appears all are singing off the same hymn-sheet at the Tigers.
With bonus payments due to the current squad, the Allams say the current wage bill at the KC Stadium will rise automatically by 50 per cent, from around £20m to close to £30m.
That will increase further to somewhere closer to the £40m mark come the start of next season.
And given their initial payment from winning promotion is around £70m, with transfer fees for new signings, the owners stress it is not a case of the club suddenly rolling in spare cash.
"Of the money coming in, a lot of it has been spent already and a lot more will be spent on new players," added chairman Assem.
"The wage bill will go to something like £40m, and we now also have to pay money to clubs we have signed players from this year based on our promotion as part of the agreement for signing their players.
"That means that getting to the Premier League has cost us £16m this year."
"We need to be a little bit smart in the transfer window this summer," adds Ehab. "Obviously, we need to careful with what we spend and make sure the money that is spent benefits the club in the long term.
"When we became involved with the club and first looked around the club's assets we were quite disappointed at the fact the club had been in the Premier League for two full years, with all the money that went with it, and nothing was spent on facilities.
"The first-team training ground facilities were shocking.
"Obviously, we have spent on improving that over the past two and a half years, but really we need to put some of that money into the infrastructure, not just at the first team level but also the academy, as the facilities there are not good enough for a level three academy.
"I think we need to improve the first-team facilities as a priority.
"We have only ever done what has been the best for the club and what we believe is right, and that is what we will continue to do."
