By admin 
Supporters of Cardiff City are currently engaged in yet another management search.
After watching their team drop out of the league for four years running, it was a godsend when Erol Bulut managed to lead them to a respectable 12th position the previous season in spite of two difficult transfer windows.
Bulut signed a two-year contract, expecting the club and its supporters to enjoy stability and a more quality-focused transfer window along with a better, more offensive style of game. But, as this team has all too frequently experienced lately, they were completely out of luck.
A lackluster transfer window that neglected to address crucial areas like a goal scorer and pace on the flanks, together with teething issues while attempting to adopt a new style, caused Cardiff to get off to their worst start ever and resulted in Bulut’s dismissal.
The board did not anticipate such a sharp decline and that they would find themselves in this all too familiar situation once more. But here we are, alas.
So, while City searches for Bulut’s replacement, let’s examine a few of the options that are probably being considered in and around the boardroom.
Omer Riza makes a statement, and the team discloses its loan transfer plan: Young player for Cardiff City pulled for meetings after “behavioral changes” and given instructions on what to do next
Seek out experiences
Is this a career in firefighting? Divergent views exist. Most people would find it quite bad that the team is bottom of the table and has had the worst start in club history.
But the season is far from over with 37 games left. When Cardiff returns from this international break, owner Vincent Tan will be hoping at the very least that they have time to make significant improvements and move up the league.
There are those at Cardiff who think the only person who can succeed in the dugout is an experienced manager with a strong personality and clear thinking. Too many people without the battle-hardened experience and scars from managing a club under such intense scrutiny and with such high expectations have been eaten up and spat out.
That explains the success of Dave Jones, Malky Mackay, and Neil Warnock. That’s why Mick McCarthy had great expectations, but those too quickly soured.
Right now, Slaven Bilic is the favorite among the bookies, and he apparently has supporters in Cardiff City Stadium’s executive suite. Skilled, having been promoted to the Championship with West Brom, he should be able to handle the typically turbulent seas in the Welsh capital with relative serenity.
On the other hand, it is suggested that the Croat has another engagement that keeps him inaccessible until January. It remains to be seen if it changes the situation.
The truth is that there’s nothing particularly fascinating about the list of candidates, especially the unemployed ones. ‘Obvious’ choices don’t really exist. If that is the kind of player Cardiff is looking for, Gary Rowett is a man who tends to steady a ship and is readily available. Although Tony Mowbray has an excellent reputation as well, there are concerns about his ability to handle the demands of leading a side that is at the bottom of the Championship as he recovers from a medical condition.
While it is stated that people like Tony Pulis, Chris Hughton, Mark Hughes, and Sam Allardyce are not discussed.
While some at the club believe this is the best course of action, the highest success rate amongst prior managers has come from selecting experienced individuals with strong personalities. Will they choose to take a little more of a chance?
The vacuum in the coach
A few people at the club have also acknowledged that the staff lacks sufficient coaching experience and football IQ.
Finding the next talented player who can lead his team to promotion and Premier League football is Vincent Tan’s aim. For this reason, in recent years, he has provided opportunities to younger managers like Paul Trollope, Neil Harris, Steve Morison, and Mark Hudson.
However, Tan’s actions have been more miss than hit. Cardiff might try to bring in some intelligence to the team by expanding the coaching staff with one or more young, gifted coaches. Get our Cardiff City newsletter by subscribing here.
Many highly regarded managers who recently left prominent teams to play for themselves are interested in what’s happening at Cardiff, but they might be seen as too much of a risk to land the top position permanently for the time being.
The issue is that Cardiff has never been strong when selecting a new manager, and it’s a difficult task to provide someone with little to no experience. It’s no small task to ask a new coach looking to make a name for himself to turn around a club that faces relegation after its trajectory has collapsed over the past five years.
However, one route they may take and a possibility on the table is adding to the staff someone whom the club believes has the ability to manage one day. Of course, the obvious issue with it is that it could lead to conflict if you later appoint a manager who wishes to bring in all of their own employees.
The compromise
Of course, there are people who occupy the center ground. The managers with some experience who, for various reasons, are searching for new possibilities.
This group of people includes, among others, Ruben Selles, Michael Beale, Ryan Lowe, and Steven Schumacher. Each of them has experienced times of success; in Selles’ case, he has been praised for his excellent handling of a terrible and toxic situation at Reading, but he has also had setbacks in other places.
You could make arguments for and against each of the aforementioned managers, but it would be difficult to persuade Cardiff’s decision-makers to fully embrace any of them.
One person who has been discussed is Selles at Reading. Despite facing challenging conditions, he performed excellently with the Royals following a poor Premier League run with Southampton. Although he now works, he has recently expressed his displeasure with the ownership there.
There are doubts about his ability to handle Tan, as has been said in earlier articles; nevertheless, this is also true of many others. Accepting the job at Cardiff comes with a cross to bear: it’s normal for an owner of a multi-million-pound company to want accountability from one of its top employees.
The issue is that there are arguments for and against each of the names presented, making it difficult to reach a unanimous decision. With Selles having his supporters as well, Bilic was as close as we’ve been at this point. However, the club is still a long way from obtaining their man.
Permit Omer Riza to proceed.
This leads us to our second scenario: allowing Omer Riza to carry on. It’s reasonable to argue that his team’s performance in the previous two games has bought him some time and gained him recognition from those in authority. It has, at the absolute least, given them time to talk rather than rushing into an urgent appointment.
Fans are irritated by that alone since it presents a poor image of the club and lacks organization. However, even fans don’t seem to be impressed by the names that have been mentioned thus far. Cardiff is aware that they cannot risk relegation, so they must do this right.
It would have been difficult to make Cardiff worse, obviously, considering that it was a team that had only one goal and one point after six games, but there have been some encouraging signs. Riza obviously wants the position as well. He argues that if someone is going to name an inexperienced head coach, why not him?
As things stand right now, Riza appears destined to continue as acting manager following the international break, however it is important to emphasize that things could change very rapidly. In either case, supporters would welcome some clarification from the top. And Riza, of course.
Allowing Riza to continue could at least buy time until a truly exceptional candidate becomes available, since there aren’t any. Both Gary O’Neil at Wolves and Rob Edwards at Luton Town have faced significant pressure. It’s hardly too bold to suggest that former Swansea managers Russell Martin of Southampton and Steve Cooper of Leicester City have also been under pressure lately.
Since assuming interim leadership, Riza has gotten good performances out of important members of this Cardiff team, including Callum Robinson, Rubin Colwill, and Ollie Tanner. This is heartening considering how bad City’s attack was prior to the 44-year-old taking over.
Following the international break, Cardiff has two crucial games against Plymouth and Portsmouth. Riza will probably have a great chance to further win over fans and the board by scoring a respectable amount of points in those two matches.
But the 44-year-old needs assistance. Gavin Ward has been brought in on an interim basis, while Darren Purse, who is perhaps the club member with the most high-level footballing experience, has been promoted to the first team bench. Once more, for the arrangement to be correct, clarity is required if this caretaker scenario is to last for several weeks or perhaps months.
Fans pound on the drum to alter the system.
At Cardiff, the present footballing hierarchy has hardly altered in almost ten years. In that time, football has undergone significant change, and the Bluebirds run the risk of falling behind if significant adjustments are not done to bring in additional knowledge and hold someone accountable for playing selections.
Supporters become nostalgic when they watch old footage of Cardiff dominating the Championship and defeating the best teams in the division just a few years ago. Nowadays, fans typically look forward to the bigwigs from the second division visiting town. Cardiff frequently wins by the narrowest of margins, thanks to a single goal; when they lose, they are too frequently humiliated. Which is a tragic reflection of the situation we are in right now.
Cardiff’s deterioration over the last five years or so has been gradual, and they have taken no action to stop it. Instead, they select a manager in the hopes that it will be the magic bullet, regardless of style, profile, transfer philosophy, or ideas about fostering youth.
Actually, that’s the reason all of the aforementioned alternatives are on the table. It’s improbable that, nearly three weeks later, managers of consistently successful teams are still debating which kind of manager, or even whose manager, to choose this time around. That’s where their deficiency in cohesive thought processes fails them.
There exist individuals within the club that support hiring a full-time staff member with the responsibility of establishing the club’s goals, values, and transfer strategy. It is documented that Chairman Mehmet Dalman spoke with Tan about it a few weeks ago. In fact, many would contend that Cardiff’s hiring of an agency and past managers to advise on the next manager throughout the club’s frequent post-sacking periods is an admission that assistance is needed.
For years, supporters have been hammering home the need to solve this issue, but Tan appears unmoved, which seems strange to supporters. However, some club members admit that they require assistance, more footballing experience at a higher level, and they find it perplexing that more significant adjustments haven’t been done to guarantee the Bluebirds are put on the correct path for long-term success.
Tan consistently invests a significant amount of money in the club. He must approve checks for outrageous fees each month just to keep the lights on, and he must be enraged that after being let down once more, he must reimburse Bulut and his employees.
Tan invests millions of dollars annually on the academy while losing money on it. In addition to providing funding for a new academy location, he is set to provide funds to a new first-team training facility. Given the state of his upper management team, why is there a reluctance to hire someone who will be directly in charge of improving the football on the field and putting in place a long-term plan for footballing success? It’s evidently not the cash.
His desire is for the team to return to the Premier League. He’d like another go at it. But his club’s trajectory is only going in one direction. Many think that this cycle will only result in Cardiff finishing last in the league unless significant changes are made to the structure as a whole.
Positively speaking, though, a quality team with respectable ages could produce some excellent players under the proper manager. The transfer market does require work, to be sure, but the proper individual can flourish here. Cardiff needs to get this one right, which is why they want to.