Cardiff City's defensive record has been a major and ongoing concern throughout the campaign.
The Bluebirds have shipped 44 goals in their 25 games this term, far too many for a team with so many experienced professionals in it. Only Reading (45) and Peterborough (48), the two teams immediately below Cardiff, have worse defences.
That cannot be attributed only to the defenders, of course, with the rest of the team also needing to harbour their share of the blame for being far too accommodating to opposition sides.
Looking for positives in defence has been a tough task this year, although Mark McGuinness has proven himself to be a genuinely promising talent for the future, he can hold his head up high.
But while he might split opinion, few defenders have been as good as Aden Flint for Cardiff across the board this season, albeit the pickings are slim. Indeed, WhoScored have him as the Bluebirds' best player this season.
He has been his typically imposing self in the air - winning an average of 6.4 aerial duels per game - and has generally done OK defensively. Lest we forget, without his four goals at the start of the season, crucial ones against Millwall and Peterborough, Cardiff could quite conceivably be three points worse off and in the relegation zone.
In recent days, League One outfit Sunderland have been linked with a move for the defender. Managed by Flint's former Bristol City boss Lee Johnson, under whom the player forged his reputation as an astute, goalscoring Championship defender, the links make sense.
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As things stand, the links are no more than that. There has been no concrete contact or offers made, but it certainly gives the club food for thought.
Flint's contract runs out at the end of the season and he will likely be one of the higher earners in the squad.
Should Sunderland - or any other club for that matter - come in with a serious offer for him, would Cardiff entertain it?
If they are not planning on renewing the player's deal at the end of the season, there is an argument to say that getting his wages off the books early and recouping a presumably nominal transfer fee would be sensible business.
On the other side of the coin, though, a team with an already poor defensive record would be losing an experienced Championship player, who has been arguably their best defender this season, in the midst of a relegation battle.
If Cardiff want to keep him, they risk losing him for free at the end of the season and it may cost them money which could otherwise have been spent on getting another centre half in during the January window.
It's a tough call and one which the Bluebirds can ill-afford to get wrong given the precarious nature of their current plight.
Should Flint leave and no suitable replacement come in, they are one injury to McGuinness, Sean Morrison or Curtis Nelson away from an even worse defensive crisis to compound their current woes.
It's no secret that Flint divides supporters. He has become a lightning rod for abuse from many supporters because they believe he typifies the cumbersome nature of Cardiff's style of play which has been present for most of the player's time here.
That, of course, is not his fault. And, defensively speaking, he has not been the calamity some continue to insist he has been.
The summer will afford Cardiff more scope to sell, buy and reset as they look to move in a new direction. Flint, Morrison and others might even fall victim to that clearout. But making such seismic decisions while being embroiled in a battle to stay in the division is far more difficult call.
It is a potential headache, a theoretical one as things stand, with the scales bobbing back and forth in favour of risk and reward. Whether Sunderland give them a decision to make, though, remains to be seen.
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