Ever since Cardiff City were relegated from the Premier League, the overall aim has been to get back there.
That, of course, is easier said than done, with 23 teams every season vying for the same prize and only three spots available.
All told, Cardiff have made a pretty poor fist of it in their three attempts since they dropped back down into the second tier in 2019, having started each season badly and changed managers in every campaign.
Uncertainly lies ahead again this summer, too, with incumbent boss Steve Morison seeing his current deal expire in June.
Given the long-term vision of the club and how they want to get there, though, Morison might be better placed than most to oversee and implement the strategy moving forward.
While at the minute, things are very short term. Cardiff must first climb out of the relegation quagmire before anyone is talking about promotions next season and beyond, but supporters are keen to know what the future looks like for their club.
"The goal is to have a core group within the first team which is from the academy, lowering the age group of the first team," Morison began.
"But there is a huge risk in being too overbearing on them. Arguably, it's why we are where we are now.
"As much positivity as there is, the reality is those players were being asked a hell of a lot of in the first half of the season. That was why we struggled. It's clear to see. The table doesn't lie.
"My mindset on it all was that we have got good players there, but are they ready for a 46-game Championship season? I don't know yet.
"You will interview every single one of them and they'll all tell you, 'I'm ready, I want to play, I want to do this and I want to do that'.
"The reality is, they don't know what that feels like. They don't know how it feels to go Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday. They don't know how it feels to go to Peterborough on Wednesday night and then go to The Den and have someone snarling at you on Saturday.
"You can't just go, 'Oh, it's all right, I'm young'. We need to win and do it now."
The word constantly coming out of Cardiff is that there is no transfer budget, it is why they have dealt solely in loans and free transfers for a year.
It means leaning even more heavily on the academy players, many of whom are promising prospects, but as Morison alludes to, they are not ready to bear the brunt of a rigorous Championship campaign, certainly if promotion is the ultimate goal – which it is.
The balancing act is introducing the players at the right time and making sure there is enough experience elsewhere on the pitch to sustain a promotion challenge in the years to come.
"Over the coming six months, year, two years — they don't need to rush — we will bring them through at the right time," the manager added.
"The best case is Phil Foden at Man City. People were calling for him to be playing and starting every single week, but would he be the player now? He didn't go on loan, stayed around in training with those players and got better.
"Now, bear in mind, we are trying to do that with five or six players, not just one.
"It's all about just doing things at the right rate. But our end goal is always exactly the same. Can we have a core group that end up having Cardiff careers like Joe Ralls?
"They will always need support around that. We can't get caught up in the fact that we need help around them.
"But it would be nice if we had one or two players who were nailed-on starters that are really doing well and we are doing well so they are not looking to go anywhere else, unless it's a big boy, which I don't think you should begrudge anyone going to further their career at a high level.
"But that's a long way down the line, as far as I can see."
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Given the financial constraints within which Morison and Co have been working for some time, though, how do Cardiff really envisage themselves breaking into the top two or overcoming rivals in an end-of-season play-off campaign?
A small clutch of clubs tend to bounce up and down from the Premier League to the Championship every season, benefitting from the riches which come with that.
It means they can constantly reinvest in their squads and nab all the best talent from their rivals across the division and beyond.
Cardiff are looking for a different way to skin the cat.
Morison foresees budgets and transfers levelling out in the seasons to come, hopefully nullifying the cash-loaded likes of Bournemouth, Fulham, West Brom, Norwich City etc. who find themselves constantly in the promotion-relegation battle each year.
When that happens, Morison says, it will then become about the club with the best plan who are better equipped to self-sustain a promotion charge, rather than rely on mega-bucks transfers.
We have perhaps seen a glimpse into Morison's thinking with his work in the January transfer window, most of which has been greeted positively by fans and an immediate upturn in results and performances are testament to that.
With 10 senior players heading out of contract in the summer, something of an overhaul is expected to take place at Cardiff City Stadium this summer.
A number of young players have grabbed the eye this season, Mark McGuinness, Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies among them, and they are expected to have more pronounced roles next term.
Morison believes that, if he is given the manager's job beyond this season, his vision of how he wants Cardiff City to look in the future has longevity and can be successful in reaching the ultimate promotion goal.
"I think there is definitely a different way of doing it," he said in response to a question from WalesOnline about sustaining a promotion charge without a transfer-kitty war chest.
"The reality is, it's always going to be tough to compete with the teams that yo-yo up and down because they are continuously getting the money to sustain those levels.
"The other reality is the Derby's of this world. Everyone will have to shape up on their financial side, so the market is going to change.
"There isn't going to be the money available to the teams outside of the top six if you've been in the Championship for three or four years and have never gone up.
"It's going to level out a bit.
"But it's all about the teams who have got the best plan and structure going forward. You have to worry about you and your plan for your team.
"If it's me [who is kept on] in the summer, then you will see a clear identity for every single position and everything we need to go forward and to be the best version of that shape or that tactic.
"That would be my plan going forward and it would definitely be with a core group of those academy players in and around it."
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