Got to be better than they've had in the past.

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Cardiff City hire ex-Man City and Rangers chief as Dalman reveals manager plan
Bluebirds chairman Mehmet Dalman hopes the new recruitment process will ensure they get the right person in to lead a promotion charge.

Cardiff City will appoint a new task force including former Manchester City academy director Mark Allen to whittle down a shortlist of manager contenders in the hope of appointing a new boss by the end of the month.

The Bluebirds are looking for Omer Riza's permanent successor after he was sacked three games from the end of the season, with Aaron Ramsey taking over on an interim basis as City dropped into League One. Conversations are set to take place on Ramsey's own future, with no decision having yet been made.

WalesOnline reported on Friday the club had engaged leading global sports agency Wasserman to provide the board with potential names to succeed Riza. While concerns were raised after the news emerged, it has been reiterated today that the search is by no means limited to only Wasserman clients.

And now, the club are employing a new approach to add an extra filter in the process. Cardiff have created a sub-committee made up of Allen, head of academy Gavin Chesterfield and another external person, understood to be from Wasserman, to pour over the shortlist before presenting the board with a dozen viable candidates.

Cardiff will then interview the concentrated shortlist of around six people before presenting their final recommendations to owner Vincent Tan in what chairman Mehmet Dalman hopes represents a rigorous, one-off recruitment process. Join the Cardiff City breaking news and top stories WhatsApp community

“We need a new manager and we’ve got to get it right," Dalman said. "This is not one to take lightly if we are going to exploit the best of the talent we have. Personally, I’d like to see a proven manager who’s done this before and knows how to get the best out of the young and the experience players.

"In terms of process, we’ve recruited a lot of managers in the past and we’ve got some right but got some wrong. This time we can’t take that risk so we’re putting in place a process where we’ll have globally-recognised sporting agents, Wasserman, working with us, not exclusively but they are driving the process of recommending potential managers to us.

"On the board level, we’re creating a sub-committee on football, where two people will probably but not necessarily be appointed from the outside for the purpose of recruiting a manager.

"We are making an internal appointment from the academy who has experience in football. They [sub-committee] will run the first round of interviews and I’m envisaging 30-odd applicants and that will be distilled down to about a dozen, then half a dozen. Then it becomes a board interview process and a final recommendation to the owner.”

Dalman added that he hoped the final appointment would be made "within this month" and hoped to have the shortlist by "the beginning of next week".

It's a radical approach which Dalman says is just a one-off for this managerial appointment. But he says, in an ideal world, he would want more football nous at board level.

"Overall, I would say I would welcome more knowledge on football," he added. "After all, this is a football club and the more people it has who understand football the better it is. We’re striving towards that.”

Who knows, perhaps if this experiment, with Allen's expertise in particular, is a success then Tan might see the benefit of having someone of that ilk at the club in a full-time capacity.

Allen, 61, was appointed Swansea's director of football back in 2021, leaving in January 2023, but previously spent eight years as Manchester City's academy director and was also director of football at Scottish giants Rangers between 2017 and 2020. Most recently he held the sporting director role at Saudi club Al Ettifaq, where Steven Gerrard was manager, linking up with the Liverpudlian again after working together at Ibrox.

The specialist recruitment team will have to distil a sizeable number of applicants before the shortlist is presented to the board.

Importantly, Dalman believes this is an incredibly attractive job with a number of exciting and extremely talented young players, coupled with an excellent core of the squad, which should appeal to top candidates. Join the Cardiff City breaking news and top stories WhatsApp community.

"I can't give you any names, but the interest is high," Dalman said of the manager search. "This is a big club, it's good to see it is attracting good names who are interested in taking on the challenge.

"To be honest, there are too many names there for me and the board to distil and analyse and that's why this process will help us.

"We will end up with two or three buckets, if you like, one will be for an experienced manager who has done this before, a bright, upcoming manager who will give us a longer-term (option) - and the club desperately needs that stability - and the third one is that we will look at some of the continental managers and go to a shortlist. We will then make a final decision."

The club hope that, while stopping short of appointing a full-time director of football, this at least proves that they are willing to listen to fans' concerns and seek the counsel of experts and football people in order to get this crucial appointment right.

"It's a filter and I think it will stop rash decisions being made. We will have independent, intellectual input," Dalman added.

"I think it's a step in the direction and I hope people can understand that people are doing the best we can within the circumstances in which the board operates."

Tan was Riza's major backer and the decision to leave him at the helm for so long ultimately sealed relegation. Following relegation, supporters' anger was rife and much of the criticism was laid at Tan's door for his inaction while the club slid towards a bottom-placed finish in the Championship.

But Tan is keen to take on the new challenge of earning promotion out of League One and is still fully committed to the cause.

"I don't speak for Vincent Tan. What I can say is I think some of the criticism is overdone and unfair," the Bluebirds chair added. "This is an owner who has got this club promoted twice into the Premier League for the first time in 56 years.

"He has injected a substantial amount of funds in the club. In his statement, it was clear to me he wants to bounce back. On the other hand, he has always said 'Everything is for sale at the right price - except for family.'

"As far as I am concerned, and I am having this discussion after a dialogue with him, I don't see anything else but his commitment to make sure we bounce back."