Given the current mood and uncertainty surrounding Cardiff City, it's difficult to look for the positive.
But if the Bluebirds are to climb out of this mess in which they find themselves, they have to start looking at solutions to the problem.
Cardiff finally got the green light from FIFA last week to allow them to recall Mark McGuinness from his loan at Sheffield Wednesday. After just 90 minutes of football back in a City shirt, it already looks like the right call.
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Donning a new shirt number, moving from the No.2 to No.5, there was a renewed confidence in the 22-year-old's play which has come from a hugely-successful loan stint in the division below.
Ask any Sheffield Wednesday fan who has seen him this season and they truly believe he is Premier League bound, sooner rather than later, too.
Mick McCarthy always maintained that the best thing he did as Cardiff manager was signed McGuinness.
"Whatever people are thinking about my reign and me, that is a damn good signing," a defiant McCarthy said of McGuinness ahead of what would be his final game in charge of City, a defeat by Middlesbrough.
"He will be a really good player for the club and I hope he is one to drive the club forward. If not, I think he will be worth a hell of a lot of money in some time to come."
A player's rise to the top is not always a straightforward, upwards curve. After bursting on to the scene and into the team just over a year ago, McGuinness could do no wrong. He enjoyed an excellent first few months in the side under Steve Morison and was a nailed-on starter at the heart of City's defence.
But he finished the season a little off-colour. We were told after the end of the season that the chastening 4-0 home defeat by Swansea City in April deeply harmed the confidence of a number of Cardiff players and McGuinness' name was mentioned in dispatches regarding that particular issue.
He made a couple of costly errors in pre-season friendlies and it was decided by Morison and the club that, in order for him to regain his confidence and get back to his best, a loan away was the best option for him. And if you are going to send a young talent on loan in the league below, clubs don't come much bigger than Sheffield Wednesday.
Dealing with the pressure of representing such a big club, the scrutiny of countless news outlets and fan forums, and coming away with all of them devastated that you have been recalled by your parent club mid-season is about as good an indicator you can have of a job well done.
McGuinness was awesome at Hillsborough. He won the club's player of the month award in consecutive months for November and December and was a rock for Darren Moore and his side during their promotion charge. Right at the heart of the feel-good factor up in Yorkshire.
The landscape is different, somewhat, down in the Welsh capital. And that's a shame, because his return should have been a cause for optimism for City fans. Instead, though, it was mired by the FIFA embargo technicality holding up his return, Mark Hudson being sacked and more headlines pertaining to the tragic Emiliano Sala saga.
Indeed, McGuinness' first game back in a blue shirt saw a protest against the board and the owner take place outside the ground, boos at half-time and full time from the home supporters and, ultimately, a 1-0 defeat by Millwall.
But looking at the broader picture, and with the spectacles perhaps sporting a rose-coloured tint, it at least offered some hope that movement in this window can serve to help City's survival hopes in a big way.
McGuinness was confident, strong and cool in possession. He added to Cardiff's threat in the opposition box during set pieces and looked formidable when defending his own goal. One moment, when the game was finely poised at 1-0 after the hour mark, George Honeyman ghosted into Cardiff's box, took a touch and lashed a low shot, destined for the bottom corner. McGuinness, out of nowhere, slid in towards his own goal and lifted the shot over his own crossbar in a valiant piece of defending.
McGuinness bolsters this Cardiff defence and that is a positive. Cedric Kipre has been totemic all season and his uncharacteristic mistake on Saturday, gifting Tom Bradshaw a goal, is, by and large, out of character. Kipre and McGuinness at centre-back, with Callum O'Dowda on the left and one of Perry Ng or Mahlon Romeo, when he is fit, on the right is a good backline. Just one addition has improved that area of the pitch.
This squad, for whatever reason, is playing to far less than the sum of its part at the minute. Blame that on managers, the board, the tactics, the individuals themselves, a lack of confidence or an extended 'bedding-in' period owing to 17 incomings in the summer. It's probably a combination of them all.
Even after half a season, though, some of them look jaded by the poor results, sub-par performances and talk of relegation. There is something to be said for bringing in fresh faces, McGuinness included, who are in a positive mind-frame, having enjoyed a successful first half of the season elsewhere.
Interim manager Dean Whitehead said on Saturday the club are close to signing a number nine and are looking at two or three other additions, likely at the top end of the pitch.
With four or five fresh faces, with a different mindset and, most importantly, some added quality, in the building, this final week of the transfer window could hold the key to Cardiff's Championship survival.
McGuinness' return has served as a small boost, two or three more could really tip the balance and maybe, just maybe, could be the difference in turning these draws or narrow defeats into wins and points on the board.
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