Last month, Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan staunchly denied any rumour he wants to sell up and move on from the Bluebirds.
"A large part of my wealth has gone to Cardiff, all my family members want me to sell ASAP. What do I tell them in response? That when when the time is right we will, but the time is not right, yet. I believe we can make this work, that I can get some of that money back," he said.
"[I want] to take this club back into the Premier League - and stay there for 10 years. Yes, I genuinely believe we can do that. I'm an optimistic person."
READ MORE: Vincent Tan interview: Takeover talk, critics, where next for club and stupid transfers
His ambition is commendable. Indeed, it's what every Cardiff City fan wants. But, for the second season running, the Bluebirds are languishing near the foot of the table, staring down the barrel of another relegation battle.
They sit 20th in the league table and, if results don't go their way this weekend, could be in the relegation zone when they start carving the Christmas turkey. The bright lights of the Premier League look some way off.
Cardiff have been in steady decline for a few of years now. Year on year, they have finished in a lower league position since the 2018/19 Premier League season. They do, though, sit three points ahead of where they were last season, so that trend may be bucked this time around, although it's a close-run thing.
The perennial slide down the ladder has coincided with Vincent Tan implementing a strategy of austerity within the club, having been burnt by mega-money transfers over the preceding decade he had been at the helm among other factors.
For that, perhaps you cannot blame him. He has spent a large portion of his wealth, as he himself alludes to at the top of this article, on Cardiff with little, really, to show for it at the minute. For him to still have such a passion and commitment to the club is heartening in some respects.
But it's difficult to marry up his ambition of wanting to achieve promotion to the Premier League and the comparatively tight budget he now expects Cardiff to operate within. All the best clubs in this division, the ones who invariably get promoted, are the ones who pump money into their squads, window after window, and cherry pick the top managers.
Yes, there are exceptions, Cardiff in fact being one of them the last time they went up thanks to the tour-de-force manager, Neil Warnock, a one-of-a-kind at this level. But, as Steve Morison even said himself, the general rule is: Investment = promotion. Like it or lump it.
Cardiff have slashed their playing budget and have spent barely anything in the transfer market over the last three seasons. There are five notable exceptions in Kieffer Moore, Max Watters, Perry Ng, Kion Etete and Callum Robinson, each of whom cost between £350,000 and £1.7m, but it's hardly the big bucks of yesteryear.
Generally, Cardiff have been rewarded for their spending in the last couple of years. Tan has alluded to the £8m and £11m down the drain having signed Andreas Cornelius and Josh Murphy respectively. Tan has been stung by those, and others. But their more considered approach to permanent transfers in recent years have benefitted the team.
Moore was a major hit. He scored goals and Cardiff sold him for a profit. Ng is one of the first names on the team sheet and an extremely capable Championship player. Robinson is a top operator at this level and is starting to prove his worth already, with four goals and four assists in 11 appearances so far. Etete looks promising on recent evidence, although it is probably too early to tell. Watters has been a rare miss.
It pays to pay, unfortunately.
Instead, the Bluebirds have had to rely on cast-offs, free agents, smart loan transfers and their own academy products. To Steve Morison's credit, he and his recruitment team actually did a decent job at assembling a brand-new squad, adding a number of solid players who will no doubt form the foundations of this group for the next few seasons.
For what it's worth, everyone seems to be in agreement that this squad is better than last year's. But it's still a far cry from a promotion-winning squad.
The Bluebirds are far better than they have shown so far this season, I am convinced that is the case. But they will need reinforcements in January once again if they are to consolidate their status as a Championship club for another season.
They did the same last season, too, bringing in five loan players in January to save the final few months of the campaign. But that cannot be the business model going forward. It's akin to sticking a plaster on a broken leg.
I do have sympathy for Tan regarding both the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on his leisure business and the off-field litigation issues he has had to bear the financial brunt of in recent years at Cardiff. He has been hit incredibly hard in the pocket.
His football clubs are struggling as a result, too. Cardiff are scrapping near the bottom, having sacked a manager. KV Kortrijk are in the relegation zone in Belgium, having sacked a manager. And FK Sarajevo are mid-table in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Premier League, having sacked a manager.
Cardiff are now on their fifth manager in three years. The last three have been interim or short-term managers who were handed longer or permanent deals. While Tan insists he has a plan, it doesn't seem to be working in its current guise.
Whether Mark Hudson is the right man to steer City on to the correct footing remains to be seen, given we are just a couple of months into his tenure. Tan has spoken highly of him. Although with just two wins in their last nine fixtures, Cardiff need to start picking up points and quickly. A decision over his future will come into the spotlight if results don't pick up. But, as has been alluded to already, their league position belies the quality they have in their squad - surely positive results are on their way?
Tan had what was deemed by many as a fanciful hope of achieving promotion this season after the summer overhaul. Even as recently as the beginning of last month he still held genuine hopes of promotion.
While they languish in 20th position in the table, the points totals of those above them are so tight. However incredibly unlikely, it's not an utter impossibility for Cardiff to go on a run, march up that table and even enter the top six by May. Realistically, the possibility is somewhat remote. But Tan believes it can happen.
Whatever, both moving away from the relegation zone and setting your sights on the top six go hand in hand. One feeds into the other and with two or three quality additions in the new year, Cardiff could indeed shoot up the ladder and land far closer to those play-off spots than where they currently find themselves.
January will represent a time when Cardiff can tweak their new-look squad, ascertain which signings have worked out and who has not been as successful, and alter the playing personnel accordingly.
Cardiff could do with a new left-back, another creative midfielder to ease he burden on the still relatively inexperienced Rubin Colwill and another striker, with Watters likely having to make way. You can read more about that here. Permanent, quality signings, rather than loans, would at least put City on a better footing for the start of next season.
"We're ready to support him in the transfer window," Tan said of Hudson last month. "No more of those stupid signings, though."
Again, the scars from the past are still clear in the eye of Tan's mind and that could potentially scupper Cardiff's chances of building a squad capable of going up, with positive, permanent signings.
But it is stick or twist time, you feel, for Tan and Cardiff. Stick with Hudson, back him and build. Or twist again and hope a Warnock-like miracle strolls along. Because the drying up of the financial well, the cost-cutting plan and the managerial revolving door is not a cocktail for a promotion-achieving club.
READ NEXT
Cardiff City ins and outs: Where they need to strengthen and who needs to go as crunch month looms
