This year was earmarked to be Isaak Davies' launch season at Cardiff City.
Unfortunately, as we all know, it hasn't quite worked out that way. For the second year running, the forward did not complete a full pre-season due to an injury he sustained before the end of the previous campaign.
He, like his academy peer Rubin Colwill, has endured a stop-start season, initially blighted by injury before two strikers were brought into the club in January as City stockpiled their forwards in an attempt to improve their goal-scoring capabilities.
Since Sabri Lamouchi took the reins in January, Davies has played only four times, starting once against West Brom. It's fair to say he has not taken his chances when afforded them this season, that home leg against Leeds United in the FA Cup aside, but it would also be fair to say others have been afforded more chances with a similar success rate.
Less than a year ago, Burnley, as they began to assemble what would eventually become a Championship-winning squad, tabled a bid believed to be worth up to £2.5million to sign the Wales youth international, but Cardiff turned that money away, believing his ceiling to be higher than that.
But injuries, a constant change of managers and playing styles, plus the likes of Sory Kaba, Kion Etete, Mark Harris, Callum Robinson and even Max Watters, at times, taking his place in the team have all conspired to slow down Davies' progress with the Bluebirds.
The 21-year-old has four goals and three assists in 41 games for the club. They are not numbers that have set the world alight, although it should be highlighted that many of those appearances were from the bench. We are now just three games from the end of the season, but it appears unlikely we will see a great deal of him before this wretched campaign is over once and for all for the Bluebirds.
He turned out for Darren Purse's under-21s on Tuesday scored, taking his opportunity nicely as he latched onto a ball over the top before coolly slotting home to restore the lead at 2-1. They would eventually go on to beat Barnsley 3-1.
Is that strike enough to force his way back into the reckoning? Well, it's not quite as straightforward as that. Lamouchi says as much. But if the striker can take one morsel of positivity, it's that the Bluebirds boss sees his potential and believes him to have a big part to play in the club's future.
"It is difficult. He trains with us and I saw the potential," Lamouchi said of Davies. "But when I started, he was injured, then after I made a different choice. We must just think about Championship games and getting points.
"Sometimes he came in, sometimes he started, like against West Brom for example. He is a fantastic guy, a fantastic boy. He wants to learn, he wants to play, he wants to enjoy. He is the future of the club."
Of course, the harsh terrain of the Championship, coupled with a relegation battle, is hardly fertile ground for a budding young talent to blossom. In an ideal world, your best young talents would be slotted in here and there during periods of success, with the weight of responsibility off their shoulders, allowing them to express themselves free of any burdens. That is why it is unlikely City fans will see a great deal of Davies, it seems, while Championship survival is still very much on the line.
"In our situation, I don't want to make some people focus on individual, single cases," Lamouchi said when asked about blooding youngsters in these trying circumstances. "I am thinking about the institution of Cardiff City Football Club, about all of us and about next season. I am trying to do my best and the Championship is a very, very tough league. Too long and a lot of games and we need consistency for that."
Quite where Davies sits in the manager's plans for next season, if indeed Lamouchi has his contract renewed, is as yet unknown. Whether a loan stint is on the cards or he is viewed as a crucial part of the jigsaw next season are all questions which will be answered in due course.
One thing that is absolutely necessary, though, is for the rapid young forward to get a full pre-season into his legs so he can, once and for all, hit the ground running next term.
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