Toby Flood anticipates a swift flight into European top-flight rugby for Newcastle Falcons, following his return to his boyhood club this May.
The former England player returns to the club where his career began, with 60 international caps and a decade of experience in European rugby following.
"It will be my first year in 10 years I won't have been playing European [Champions] Cup rugby which is interesting and completely different," he said.
"But where this club is going I don't think it will be very long and I hope we get back into that situation.
"And with what Dean (Richards, Falcons' director of rugby) and the coaches are doing here I think we're heading down the right pathway and what could be a really positive outcome this season."
The 31-year-old fly-half came through the Falcons' academy before signing for Leicester in 2008, and has spent the last three years playing for Toulouse.
Flood re-signed for the Falcons in May and believes he is now a more accountable player than when he first joined the club.
"I'm probably much more level-headed than I was when I was younger, I think I was much more a seat-of-my-pants type player, playing instinctively and having a go," he said.
"But now you have to be more aware of those around you and what the situation demands, so I suppose the development has been becoming accountable for those around me and holding me accountable for my actions and decisions."
Flood says he was prompted to return to Newcastle by the positive comments of current players at the club and has learned lessons from his time in France.
"Probably the biggest lesson was as rugby players we can become a bit looked after and wanting to do the same things prior to kick-off, and in France nothing was ever the same," he said.
"There was no continuity, there would be nothing in the changing room or they would forget, so you had to learn to deal with the consequences of maybe not doing something before a game.
"So it was learning to deal with that sort of stuff, the mental control of dealing with that and turning up to games shrugging your shoulders and going out and playing."