Bluebirds owner Sam Hammam has been telling anyone who cared to listen that Robert Earnshaw would some day play in the Premiership. But the millionaire businessman always stressed that Earnshaw would be terrorising the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United in the blue of Cardiff.
Under his control, Hammam pledged, Cardiff would never be a 'selling club'.
After years of underachievement and mismanagement at Ninian Park, the Cardiff faithful had become accustomed to false dawns and modest ambitions.
But when Hammam arrived four years ago with a blueprint which included building a new 30,000-seater stadium, securing Premiership status and even Champions League football, even the most pessimistic Cardiff fan allowed himself to get caught up in the feel-good factor.
And to be fair to the former Wimbledon chairman, steady progress has been made.
Cardiff were going nowhere fast in the league's bottom division when he took over. Now, they are taking their second shot at Premiership promotion after a promising consolidatory first season in the old First Division.
Plans for the new stadium - whose capacity could be expanded to 60,000 in time - have been approved, although the work which had been expected to start this summer has failed to materialise.
And in Earnshaw and centre back Danny Gabbidon, Cardiff have developed two rough diamonds who could lead the club to new heights.
Their performances for Wales over the last season and a half soon triggered the obligatory transfer speculation.
 |  My message to anyone who thinks we will sell Earnshaw is this - put up or shut it |
But Hammam stood firm, and his reassuring words gave the fans no reason not to believe him despite the nagging doubts. "Robert Earnshaw is leaving Cardiff City, but not for 10 years at least," was Hammam's defiant message only a few weeks ago.
"We are hell-bent on Earnie and our other leading players staying at the club."
Hammam's ability to exaggerate is unrivalled in the football world - he, of course, once unashamedly proclaimed that Cardiff are a bigger club than Leeds United could become as big as Barcelona.
But not many would have believed that �3 million from West Bromwich Albion would be enough of an incentive for Hammam to go back on his word.
So does this signify the end of Hammam's Premiership dream for Cardiff?
Has he lost his appetite for the fight, and will he abandon the club in much the same way as he left Wimbledon in the mire?
Or this just the next piece of the masterplan? Does Hammam believe Cardiff can live without a striker who will score 20-plus goals a season?
Only Hammam can answer these questions, and despite repeated requests, he has declined to comment on Earnshaw's sale.
And for one usually so ready to voice his opinions, his silence should ring the alarm bells among Cardiff fans.
Even before confirmation of Earnshaw's departure, the groans of discontent on the Ninian Park terraces were growing.
Saturday's home defeat to Stoke left Cardiff two places off the bottom of the league, with just four points from five games.
Even with Earnshaw up front with the ever impressive Alan Lee, Cardiff looked a pretty toothless attacking force in their opening games this season.
Andy Campbell partnered Lee in Earnshaw's absence on Saturday, but the former Middlesbrough forward will never be able to match Earnshaw's instinctive scoring ability.
Manager Lennie Lawrence has said he will use the proceeds from the Earnshaw sale to bolster his squad - but where will he find a striker capable of filling Earnshaw's boots?
Not only has the club lost a proven goalscorer, but they've let a local hero - a player who fans considered one of them - to slip away without much of a fight.
Even in today's deflated transfer market, �3m for someone who has scored 7 goals in just 13 internationals and has sent the Cardiff City records tumbling seems too low.
Hammam has certainly managed to awoken a sleeping giant since arriving at Cardiff, but losing Earnshaw has always been the worst nightmare for the Bluebirds faithful.
That nightmare is now a reality, and Hammam needs to move fast to regain their trust.
MMIX
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