Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman has spelt out what needs to happen next with the Bluebirds and warned they must not have a repeat of the tortuous campaign which is just coming to an end.
The Bluebirds avoided the dreaded drop into League One after Sabri Lamouchi and Sol Bamba were brought in at the 11th hour to rescue the team following the doomed managerial spells of Mark Hudson and Steve Morison.
Dalman admits he and fellow Board members were genuinely fearful at one point of relegation out of the Championship, which is why they asked a seasoned manager in Lamouchi to take up where rookie bosses Morison and Hudson had left off.
Cardiff's owner Vincent Tan continues to bankroll the Bluebirds, but is thought to be losing in the region of £13million a year. The figure was believed to be double that before recent cutbacks.
Dalman says: "It's still a lot of money, even for a billionaire."
However, Cardiff want to put a plan together which would see them challenging for the top six next season, rather than be languishing in the bottom positions again with the fear of the drop hanging over them.
Asked about where he sees the club going from here, Dalman said: "That can almost be split into four parts.
"The first is: What is the sustainable future of the club and how do we build that?
"The second is: Who's the right manager for that?
"The third is: Do we have the resource to do what we need to do, in order to build that future?
"And finally, we have to continue to tackle the legal issues that we have been dealing with over the last three years."
The Bluebirds hierarchy, and pundits throughout the UK, realise there is so much potential with Wales' capital city club. Cardiff drew a crowd of almost 27,000 for what turned out to be a game against Huddersfield with nothing on it for them, so just imagine what they could achieve with regular success.
Under the Tan regime, Cardiff have twice delivered the Premier League dream, but it has proved to be boom and bust with instant relegation following.
There is a different business model in situ these days, but Dalman feels that with some shrewd transfer dealings this summer Cardiff can become a Championship powerhouse again.
And he pointed out: "Vincent is a hugely successful businessman. He isn't the sort of individual to settle for second best."
The first issue Cardiff will need to deal with is striking a new contract with Lamouchi to stay on as manager. Dalman says the Frenchman delivered on the brief he was given and wants him to build on that.
"Which was to keep us in this division. Mission accomplished. Credit to Sabri, and those working with him, for getting us out of a difficult position," said Dalman.
"Look, there came a point with around 12-13 games to go where we were each concerned this club might be relegated. None of us wanted that. I've been chairman here for 11 years and the idea of being in charge when this club got relegated out of the Championship wasn't particularly appealing.
"We made the change that we felt necessary by bringing Sabri on board. Ultimately it had to be Vincent's decision, that's only right as he's the major shareholder, but once again when he was asked to step up for this football club he did just that.
"The next question is where we go from here. None of us want to go through a year like that again. It was frustrating, disappointing, extremely hard work - and I'm normally an optimist.
"What we will do is talk imminently to Sabri, ask how he sees things, listen to his feedback. He's greatly impressed us and I think he will stay. Put it this way, I've no reason to believe his thoughts on the future are any different to ours."
Lamouchi, of course, inherited the current squad from Morison and Hudson and had to be pragmatic in how he approached games to get Cardiff out of trouble.
However, moving forward he will want to bring in a number of his own players, footballers of a higher quality, and it may be Tan has to release the purse strings a little more to pay the wages.
As things stand, Cardiff are under an EFL transfer embargo for another two windows - a situation they are fighting via the legal route - even though FIFA themselves lifted the ban when Tan paid the first instalment of the Emiliano Sala fee to Nantes.
That means the Bluebirds cannot pay a fee for any player. However, Lamouchi is aware of the restrictions and is looking to unearth some free transfer nuggets, some of those targets coming from the continent, and also work in the loan market.
Cardiff point out that because of strict Financial Fair Play rules, the majority of Championship clubs will be unable to spend sizeable sums anyway this summer, so they feel they are almost on a level playing field.
They will, though, continue to fight the embargo, believing the Football League stance is grossly unfair given FIFA's original decision to lift the ban.
The other thing that gives Lamouchi plenty to work with is Cardiff's somewhat lopsided squad. The manager could potentially free up wages by looking to move out a number of players - first-teamers and fringe figures - and bring in up to eight new men of a superior quality as part of the turnaround.
Cardiff had a massive rebuild last summer, but in the drive to construct a side capable of challenging for the top six it seems another overhaul is likely in the coming weeks and months.
Cardiff's defence looks good, particularly if they can persuade Cedric Kipre to return from West Brom, but Lamouchi will want to work on the midfield and the forward places in a bid to end the team's woeful scoring record, which has often put them on the back foot in matches.
The Bluebirds won just six of their 23 Championship home games this season and netted only 20 goals. Only rock bottom Wigan had a worse record.
Lamouchi has yet to see what a fortress a bouncing Cardiff City Stadium can be, as evidenced by the Bluebirds under Malky Mackay and Neil Warnock and Wales in recent times. It is hoped a restructure of the side, and making more use of gifted homegrown talents Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies, can enthuse the fans and help turn the ground into a fortress once more.
Ultimately, of course, Tan will need to buy into this and be persuaded that Cardiff can start moving in the right direction again and stay on an upwards trajectory.
But despite the awful season, calls from some fans for him to go, and the various off the field distractions, it appears the owner remains adamant the club can move forward under him.
"I'm not Vincent Tan, so I can't speak for him," said Dalman. "But what I can tell you is he continues to support this club, writes the cheques. Every year people ask me whether he is still committed to Cardiff City and I do wonder why they do that because the answer is always the same.
"He is 100 per cent on board from what I see. We know we still have work to do here, although at least the horrible pressure of looking down towards League One has gone. What we need to do is ensure this doesn't happen again.
"There are so many moving parts that Vincent has to consider. The Sala situation, for starters, where we're still waiting to hear from the Swiss Federal Courts before deciding upon our next steps. I hear people say 'Just put it behind you'. We'd love to put it behind us, but it's not that simple. There is a legal process to go through, and at the same time we need to be able to provide £15m in payments to Nantes if we need to make that.
"There's the embargo, we're negotiating very hard with the EFL to try to get that lifted.
"There's next season, with Sabri waiting to hear from us what we want him to achieve with us.
"And it's how we move on to make sure we're not in this position next year. That means having the right manager, the right number of players and the quality of player that we require.
"We need to be on a sounder footing, be more consistent next season and show proper signs of progress. Our job is not finished here. The pandemic hit the business world hard and had a huge impact on our investment into Cardiff, but the good news is the markets are coming back, there are signs of normality again, and that means we can start to plan ahead."
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