Ryan Wintle has his sights set on Premier League football with Cardiff City and believes the talented youngsters who are now beginning to flourish will be central to their promotion push in years to come.
Cardiff's season has been an underwhelming one. It started poorly and tailed off rapidly before Steve Morison took the reins back in October, which has preceded an upturn in form.
Wintle's own season has not been quite what he had envisaged when he signed as a free agent last summer, that's for sure. The midfielder was brought in and then shipped out immediately on loan to Blackpool before being recalled in January.
The 24-year-old has impressed since coming back to the club, along with a number of new recruits and academy products.
One of the reasons Wintle chose Cardiff was because he wanted to fulfil his dream of playing in the Premier League. Of course, Cardiff's aim as a club is to get there again, too.
With this season having quickly turned into an attempt to stave off relegation rather than achieve promotion, it is a campaign in which the Bluebirds have been able to coax through some younger talent with one eye on the future.
This term we have seen increased involvement from academy graduates Rubin Colwill, Mark Harris, Isaak Davies and Joel Bagan, who is in the form of his life at the minute after scoring three goals in as many games over the last week.
And Wintle hopes that next year, or perhaps beyond, with more Championship football under their belts, those youngsters can improve further and help to drive a promotion push.
"It's one of the reasons I signed for this club, because I want to kickstart my career and hopefully that's with this club," Wintle said after the 1-1 draw with Blackpool on Saturday.
"This is a massive, massive club and the aim is to get to the Premier League again.
"In my three years here I hope we can do that.
"The team now has got a lot more youth in it, you look at Joel Bagan, for example. He wasn't in the team and then he has come in and scored three in three.
"It's brilliant to see that and hopefully it'll continue and they'll get better and we'll all get better as a group and finish higher in the table."
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Morison oversaw a positive January transfer window in which they recruited five loanees, all of whom have made an impact since coming in.
With those five players heading back to their parent club in the summer and a further 10 senior players heading out of contract, too, whoever is in the hot seat will have to undertake a huge squad rebuild.
It is likely to entail more loan signings, some free agents, too, but there will certainly be a more youthful look to the summer transfer strategy to what we have seen in previous years.
While it will be all change this summer, the young players in whom the club have invested so much will be front and centre of what Cardiff do going forward.
We have seen real improvement from a number of homegrown starlets, but Bagan and Isaak Davies are two who have really kicked on in recent weeks.
Davies has muscled his way into Cardiff's starting line-up in recent weeks and has quickly become a fan favourite, rightly being lauded for his tireless defensive work as he leads from the front and showcasing some blistering speed.
He is an exciting talent for Welsh football and Morison believes the player's potential is limitless.
"[His ceiling] is as high as he wants his ceiling to be," Morison said of the 20-year-old striker.
"What's really good is that he's not scored and he didn't look like scoring today, but his all-round game outside of that means he is at a level which keeps him in the team. It gives you that work ethic up front.
"It's a difficult one and a tough one for us to get the balance right for us. Is it better to start Mark Harris today and then bring Isaak on to win us the game? Or is it better the other way around?
"It's a tough one for them but eventually, when you talk about his ceiling, he'll be able to affect the game from the start and carry that through for 90 minutes - then you don't want to take him off, ever!
"As long as he keeps his head down and keeps working hard, that's his basic level. Once he gets the games under his belt and his body has the confidence to handle what it needs to do, I think you'll start seeing him score a lot of goals."
With Davies, Colwill, Bagan, Harris, Wintle, Mark McGuinness and Perry Ng all in situ, as well as the likes of Tom Sang, Kieron Evans, Chanka Zimba and Co to return next year, there is a buzz around what this young squad could achieve in the coming years.
There are other academy kids, too, the club are excited about.
So, with smart recruitment just as we saw in January, there is no reason why next year cannot see a more rigorous push for the top end of the table and, perhaps, for Wintle's Cardiff City wish to be fulfilled.
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