WE’VE seen him and now we’ve heard from him all in the same month.

Maybe it needed the season to suddenly fall off a cliff or the criticism to grow in volume and anger.

Maybe it needed talk of a protest before tomorrow’s game from fed-up fans.

It seems it certainly needed Ryan Sparks to hop on a plane to pin the man down in his own backyard.

But 24 hours on from those summit talks in Germany, we have an open letter from Stefan Rupp.

City’s owner has finally broken his self-imposed silence and issued a “mea culpa” to supporters.

Some were quick to point out that Rupp had issued a similar “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again” statement in the wake of the Edin Rahic trainwreck.

But this time is different, there are actual targets mentioned rather than just vague platitudes and promises.

Supporters have a checklist to see if Rupp’s big words translate into actions: the pledge to communicate a lot more, an increased budget, the strengthening of the football department, the desire of buying back Valley Parade.

It has made the chairman accountable – and that surely indicates progress from where we were standing this time yesterday.

Rupp has a long way to go to restore any faith in his leadership. A glance at the corresponding league tables from season one to now confirm how far the club have fallen in that time.

But there is substance to suggest that Rupp will take a more active interest. He has no choice.

If he ultimately wants to get out and sell, the product must be worth buying and currently that is way, way short of the sort of price he would be after.

Rupp finally saw that for himself when he took in the Mansfield mauling – his first visit to Valley Parade since pre-season.

The sullen face hidden beneath a red motor-racing cap could not have been further removed from the smiles and hugs for Sparks after the Carlisle play-off first leg last May.

But it still needed Sparks to demand yesterday’s meeting in Munich to hammer every point across and leave Rupp in absolutely no doubt how much has to improve.

Sparks has copped the criticism for both of them in the owner’s continued absence.

As the abuse rained down on the chief executive at Harrogate, he must have wondered if it was all worth the hassle.

In Sparks’ shoes, would you put up with the constant slagging while the man at the top sits miles away oblivious to it all?

Maybe the conversation in Germany went along the lines of “you ship up or I’ll ship out”.

Whatever, it seems to have brought Rupp to his senses.

Of course, fanciful talk will always be cheap. “Fine words butter no parsnips” as someone put so succinctly on X. It’s actions that we need to see – and now we wait for City’s owner to deliver.

Nobody is talking about a Rupp resurrection just yet, but his Easter message represents the very start.

There remains an awfully long way to go.