Cardiff City legend Danny Gabbidon has called for the Bluebirds to look at Brighton's model for success and to adopt it as their own blueprint as they look to plan a route out of this current crisis.
Cardiff are 21st in the division after going nine games without a win in the Championship, a run stretching back to the start of November.
They are on the lookout for their third manager of the season, their fifth in two years and their 13th in a decade. It's hardly the example of success and sustainability. You can read live updates here.
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At some point, someone has to admit mistakes have been made and change is needed. That is the only way this club will move forward, if the owner admits he needs help, as we wrote here after Mark Hudson's sacking just over a week ago.
And Gabbidon, adored by Bluebirds supporters for what he did during his 172 appearances for the club, agrees.
"The first thing Cardiff should have done when they were having these thoughts about changing the style of play or going with a different manager, was get a director of football," Gabbidon said on the latest episode of BBC's EJFOF.
"That's what they need. You've got an owner who isn't there. So how does he have a real feel for what's going on at the club, what he's trying to do, what the fans are thinking? You have Ken Choo and Mehmet Dalman, they're not really there, either.
"There's nobody really running the football club."
The show's fellow pundit, former Wales and Norwich City striker Iwan Roberts, asked Gabbidon if he would be open to becoming technical director, given his contacts, experience within the game and standing within the club.
Unfortunately, the conversation moved on before Gabbidon was given a chance to answer, but it's certainly food for thought.
Host Elis James then made a salient point about the revolving door at Cardiff potentially putting managers off the prospect of taking the job in fear of getting the sack after a poor run of results.
Gabbidon waded in with: "Any manager will look at the club from the outside and think it's a good club, good fan base, a good stadium. But you do your homework, a bit more internally about how difficult the job is going to be and you probably wouldn't take it.
"That's the first thing they've got to do. You've got to get someone into the club who is there every single day who can oversee everything, make the correct decisions and lay down some sort of long-term plan for the club.
"I was at Brighton on the weekend and to see where they've come from is incredible. The work (CEO and deputy chairman) Paul Barber and (owner and chairman) Tony Bloom have done there to get them to where they are now. I remember playing them in division three when I was with Cardiff City, when they were at the Withdean Stadium, an awful place to go! But you see that long-term plan.
"I was listening to a podcast Paul Barber did. I think he came in in 2012 and he got rid of Gus Poyet, who was the manager, and I was at Palace at the time and beat them in the play-off final. They didn't get promoted that season.
"They made a change, brought Chris Hughton in and said 'This is how we are going to get to the Premier League and this is what we do when we are there'. Even before they achieved promotion they had a plan about how to stay in the Premier League as well.
"Since then they have built a new stadium, the training ground is fantastic, they have got ex-players within the football club as well. To see how they have progressed over the last three or four years, staying in the Premier League and now looking how they progress again and jump to another level, is fantastic.
"It's all from long-term planning, having the right people in the football club making the right decisions. Even to the point where he was saying that he knew he was going to lose some of their staff after having a little bit of success., but they have already got the next one in place. Even when they've got Graham Potter, they are scouting around at other managers, seeing who is good and who isn't.
"They had (former technical director) Dan Ashworth, who has just moved to Newcastle United. They already had a plan in place. For every role they have in the club, they have a deputy underneath, so if that person goes, the deputy gets trained and they have the option of promoting them or bringing someone in from the outside. It was fascinating and you can understand why they have done so well over the last few years.
"I just thought, the contrast between the two teams who started out in division three at the same time is incredible."
Cardiff supporters are somewhat disillusioned by the lack of plan or communication from the very top and the feeling of disengagement. That manifested itself in a protest outside the club's reception ahead of the defeat by Millwall on Saturday afternoon, which you can read about here.
Vincent Tan, in an interview with WalesOnline, once again reiterated his desire to stay at the helm and take the club back to the Premier League, wanting to stay there for a decade or more having learnt from past mistakes.
Gabbidon, however, believes he would sell if an offer was tabled at the right price. But the former Wales centre-back said that for Tan to get the club back to somewhere near his own valuation, he has to admit his own shortcomings and begin to delegate responsibility more.
"The owner, if you look at it, he wants to sell the club, really," he added.
"But, he probably won't at the minute because it's not at its height and he won't get the money he wants. So he'll be thinking, 'Right, how do I get this club back to a level where I can sell it on? That's not going to happen from me continuing to make all the decisions. I can't be there all the time because of my other businesses, let me put someone in place who can drive this club forward and then he can help me, because if I can get the club back to where I want it, I can sell the club for what I'm asking for.'
"But at the minute, it's just rinse and repeat. They just continue to do the same things wrong all the time because you have an owner making all the decisions and 90 percent of them are not the right ones.
"When he first came in, he was passionate, spent money, had a vision of what he wanted to happen. There have been sprinkles of success with promotion within that time. He's lost his way. He needs to delegate. He needs to step away from it and say, 'Do you know what? I can't do this. I'm not very good at this. So let's get someone in, who will be there day to day, put a plan in place and come to me and say they can have the club back at a certain level within X amount of years and this is what we need to do, to do it.'
"Then he needs to say, 'OK'. It's as simple as that."
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