Is there a more frustrating team in the A-League than Melbourne City?
The club has no financial concerns and a training set up that would be the envy of every other team in the competition.
It has the facility to loan and borrow players from its parent, Manchester City, and it can tap into the huge global resources of the City Football Group to scout players and make new signings.
That connection has in the past two seasons delivered them proven matchwinners such as Bruno Fornaroli, the captain and leading scorer, and last season the mercurial, if poorly behaved off the field, Harry Novillo.
Yet City continue to delight and frustrate in equal measure.
When they are good, they are very good.
The 4-1 destruction of Melbourne Victory in the first local derby of the campaign, sealed by Tim Cahill's world-class strike, will live long in the minds of all who watched it.
And City were the first team (one of only two) to defeat Sydney FC, the runaway premiership favourites, when they beat Graham Arnold's men 1-0 to win their first piece of men's silverware, the FFA Cup, in late November.
But when they are poor they can be woeful - a team seemingly lacking in bite and mental strength - as away losses and draws with Adelaide, Newcastle and Central Coast (when they needed a late penalty to level the score) illustrate. All three of those teams are out of the top six and don't look like making the finals.
Did the FFA Cup success, if only subconsciously, allow the players to ease off?
That win came on November 30.
Up to that point of the A-League season City had 16 points from eight games.
Since then they have picked up 20 points from 16 games.
In the early season matches they were accruing two points per game. Since the cup win they are averaging just over a point a match. Overall they have a total of 26 points from their 24 matches, bang on 1.5 points a game, which is enough to make a side reasonably competitive in the A-League but nowhere near sufficient to snare a top-two spot.
City's latest loss, to a resurgent Western Sydney Wanderers, perfectly encapsulates the frustration their supporters must be feeling.
Michael Valkanis' men got off to a brilliant start when Neil Kilkenny's shot from just outside the area was deflected past Vedran Janjetovic to put them 1-0 up inside three minutes.
A perfect platform for the visitors to go on and establish their dominance against a side that has for much of this season also struggled for consistency, particularly at home.
But City couldn't maintain concentration long enough to not only add to their score but to keep a clean sheet.
Brendon Santalab's historic hat-trick gave the Wanderers a tremendous fillip and now Tony Popovic's team, which has cemented sixth spot, can legitimately hope to finish higher, certainly high enough to snare a home final.
While fourth-placed City face difficult away trips to Sydney and Perth in their last three games (the other is at home to Adelaide), Wanderers have winnable away games in Newcastle and Adelaide, both of whom will have little to play for, and at home to a Victory team that may also be coasting - at least subconsciously - as it wrapped up second spot some time ago.
City's woes have intensified with the loss of key defender Michael Jakobsen, who has been out of action for several weeks now with a calf injury.
Valkanis describes him as the best defender in the league: others might argue that point (Alex Wilkinson has been a key factor in the stability of Sydney's rearguard since he moved back to his home city following a brief loan deal with Melbourne City last season) but it is hard not to agree that he seems essential to City's fortunes.
He last played in the final derby of the season (February 4) when City lost to Victory 2-1.
Since then City have played six games without him, and while they have posted three wins they have come against teams that are out of contention (Newcastle, the 10-man Mariners and Wellington as they regrouped following the resignation of coach Ernie Merrick).
Whenever they have met a side in the top six without Jakobsen they have struggled, earning only one point from three matches against Brisbane (a 2-2 draw when they came from behind) and Sydney and the Wanderers (both defeats).
The City boss keeps saying that his Danish centre-back - whose contribution to the team goes beyond simply playing as he is a key organiser in the defensive third - will be back soon, but the club is reluctant to risk him until he is 100 per cent ready given that they will play finals football and want him available then.
The problem is their finals campaign could be short-lived if they don't finish third or fourth, as they would then have to travel away to Perth, Sydney or Brisbane in the first week of the play-offs for a sudden-death game in which the home team would invariably start as favourite.
The coach expressed his frustration for what was definitely a game of two halves for City against the Wanderers.
"The first half was good and we did well. The second half there was a period where Western Sydney really got on top of us early on and within the space of four to five minutes they scored two goals which is disappointing," Valkanis said.
"How we conceded those goals was very frustrating and with those first 15 minutes [of the second half] that's where the game was lost. There was a period of five minutes where we weren't focused - two crosses, two goals."
Valkanis now has to pick his team up quickly for a return visit to the NSW capital as City face league leaders Sydney next weekend.
The Sky Blues are the most organised, structured and efficient team in the competition, as their league record suggests.
City can ill afford any lapse in concentration, which is why a Jakobsen return would be so welcome for a team that needs to find a consistent groove. Otherwise the aspiration of captain Fornaroli, to lead City into Asia this season will remain just that - an aspiration.
