The last month has been a painful one for Cardiff City. That is always the danger when a team reaches its goal, which, since the back end of last year, was to secure Championship football for next season.
It's a Catch-22 situation for Steve Morison and the team. There is little to gain from trotting out the same players or system which produced that tremendous run of results from January into March, consolidating the club's position in the second tier in the process, when so many of the players are not here next season and they want to move in a different direction in terms of style.
On the other hand, it is completely understandable that Bluebirds supporters feel disappointed to see their team lose five out of six games since Cardiff returned from the international break. No fan wants to see that, whether it's a rebuild-in-progress or not.
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The 2-0 defeat by Middlesbrough represented Cardiff's 23rd loss of the season. They are on course to secure their worst position in the Championship, too. Much of the damage was done early on in the season, of course, but, whichever way you look at it, this squad of players is not up to it. Every City fan dotted around the world is already begging for the final whistle at Pride Park a week on Saturday.
This summer is an opportunity and a big one at that. Subpar players on big wages, signed on long contracts deep into their twenties, will be shipped out of the building. A new era is hopefully in the offing and, as the old adage goes, it's always darkest before the dawn.
The real mark of Cardiff's issue came when Middlesbrough brought on Aaron Connolly, a 22-year-old with more than 50 Premier League games under his belt, and Sporting CP striker Andraz Sporar, who is on loan at the Riverside. Cardiff could only dream of that sort of depth at the minute.
Morison said after the match that he had only 18 players available to him and took them all to Teesside. That in itself is as close as we've had to confirmation that Marlon Pack and Leandro Bacuna, who have been bombed out of the squad since January, are out the door this summer. Although you hardly have to tap into your Morse-like intuition to figure that one out.
Those 18 players included two youngsters who had not been capped at Championship level in Rohan Luthra and Jai Semenyo and other rookies with just a couple of appearances apiece in Eli King and starting centre-back Oliver Denham. Ten of the 18 were 24 or under.
Some of these kids have promise and there is hope a couple of them to grow to become robust Championship players in the years to come. But the reality, as always, is that many will fall by the wayside, too. The only real way to find out whether they are up to the task is to play them. In that respect, it's better to find out if they are not up to it now than when there really is something on the line next season.
There has been excitement about the inclusion of academy graduates this year and the reason for that is twofold; it hasn't happened in years and everything else, by and large, has been utterly miserable. It's provided genuine optimism during an otherwise disappointing campaign.
But the young lads need help and lots of it. There is a dearth of leadership and quality throughout the team and it trickles down. Even the players who came in on loan, who impressed early doors and lifted everyone's standards, have gone off the boil the last few weeks.
Youngsters Oliver Denham, Rubin Colwill, Isaak Davies and Joel Bagan have shown flashes of real promise, but invariably there have been consistency issues, as happens with young players learning the game. Morison even highlighted the issue the day before Cardiff travelled to Middlesbrough.
"There are a lot of young players," he said of his squad. "We champion the young players and they have been excellent. But they need help. Regardless of what anyone says, they are not fully-fledged Championship players yet.
"Middlesbrough have got hundreds of Championship and Premier League players across the board and we will go there with a bunch of players who have played their first season in the Championship and are putting them on a level par.
"There is a reality to it and we understand the reality. For me it’s a really exciting future, but I can't wait for June 1 to come."
It's difficult to tell which of the young players will be a success and have long careers at Cardiff or elsewhere, although with each passing game judgements are being made by people within the club and fans looking in from the outside.
The goodwill and patience which was shown when the young players were introduced, when it was almost still a novelty, has quickly dissipated in some quarters, which is a shame but serves as further proof of the visceral anger towards what has happened this season. But it's hardly their fault, they have had to be thrown in at times to act as saviours as the hangover from previous years' transfer windows continue to linger. It's unfair on the players and their development to become lightning rods for that abuse.
But it is hoped, with as many as 15 newcomers coming through the door this summer, the load can be lightened on the youngsters not quite ready to rough it out for 46 games in a Championship season.
"Now we have the opportunity to build something of our own with substance, for the benefit of the football club, for the benefit of the fans, so we don’t have situations like this again," Morison added on the transfer situation.
"We are at the start of a cycle now and it’s got to continually evolve over the years."
The start of this cycle, as Morison puts it, is huge. Get Project Reset wrong and next season could be a disaster. Get it right, though, and it could be the first, tentative steps towards a more sustainable club built on a far firmer footing. It could give the kids a fairer opportunity to flourish, surrounded by better players and playing better football, while it could give fans a sorely-needed lift after a frankly agonising campaign.
