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I raise my hat to Cardiff City supporters. Once more, they find themselves shaking their heads, raising their arms in the air, and pleading for a manager update that never materialises.

While Bluebirds supporters have been amazingly, shockingly patient while they await the conclusion of what appears to be the longest contractual saga in modern football history, football fans are generally notorious for their intolerance and impatience.

Part of that will be due to the fact that City supporters have become jaded by these all too common emotions of silence and purgatory when it comes to supporting their team. Some are so afraid that things will go wrong and their team would have to seek for a new manager in June—an even more concerning scenario—that they don’t want to jeopardise or upset the status quo.

For the past month, we have been informed that things are getting close, that there are technicalities to work out, that Erol Bulut and Vincent Tan have the upper hand, and that this cannot continue much longer. However, it has continued for what seems like an eternity. A losing struggle of attrition where the winner’s rewards are smaller by the day.

Because this isn’t good, no matter how you square it. It’s not a nice look, and it doesn’t give anyone—fans, the manager, the owner—confidence that everything is going smoothly here. A successful negotiation is less about proving the lesser of two evils and more on making progress towards a good, marching anthem.

After four seasons in a row of finishing lower in the league than the previous year, the previous season was not perfect—for long stretches it was everything but—but it was at least a move in the right direction.Cardiff had a manager in charge from the beginning to the end of the season, winning 19 games and finishing solidly in the centre of the league in 12th place. That’s a sensible place to start.

However, there is a genuine and present danger of erasing all that goodwill. The bank’s credit limit prevented them from leaving this precarious scenario unchecked for as long as it has. After being left in the dark for so long, the supporters’ trust even reached out to the decision-makers, finally labelling the situation as “unacceptable”.Get our Cardiff City newsletter by subscribing here.

In Bulut and Tan, there are two parties that seem to disagree on a variety of issues, with chairman Mehmet Dalman attempting to mediate the situation. In actuality, though, this ought to have been resolved months ago. The queries came in February, March, April, and an increasingly irate Bulut had no answers.

After his one-year term expires, can a manager ever truly feel fully supported and at ease if it’s taken this long and this many trips back to the negotiation table? That is a legitimate issue for some people. Bulut is right to want to protect himself, as Tan has a history of losing patience with managers easily.

In this industry, it’s normal to criticise a player based on some of his plays, team choices, and substitutions, and Bulut has his share of these. However, he has also succeeded in challenging situations, is ambitious, and produces outcomes. If football style is a concern, then Tan shouldn’t be surprised because this is exactly how Bulut has always played the game. As the person signing these important decisions, Tan will undoubtedly have done his research.

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Some fans are afraid that this summer, a significant chance was lost. Sort things out in the last few months of the season, schedule your preseason tour, decide who you want to transfer in, and get started right away. In addition to being free of the restrictions of a transfer embargo, Bulut will benefit from his year of experience in a completely new league and will have learnt from his mistakes.

Cardiff has a legitimate chance to have a successful summer window for the first time in many years thanks to a staff and playing group that can finish in the top six. It was to be expected by all the fans, but I don’t blame them for their relative indifference or lack of interest in the matter, which speaks volumes. Every time their hopes are raised, they are disappointed and worn out.Even in the event that the negotiations are successful, a great deal of the momentum and optimism will have been lost. Supporters will probably feel relieved rather than raise their fists in the air now, and that in and of itself says volumes about how this has been handled by all parties.

Notwithstanding this, Cardiff still has every chance to succeed in the upcoming months. To rekindle the proceedings, the unpleasant deadlock surrounding Bulut’s deal needs to be resolved expeditiously. However, we’ve been informed that the manager and his team are holding out for the moment when the green light will finally come on.

The one silver lining from these drawn-out negotiations may be that since Bulut and company have worked so hard to get so many crucial elements over the line, things may actually start taking shape rapidly and significant issues will probably have been resolved. Fans will be fervently hoping that everything else proceeds swiftly when the dam bursts so they may look forward to another season of progress rather than despair.