"Behind your back" - Erol Bulut takes aim at Omer Riza over unpleasant Cardiff City development | OneFootball

Former Cardiff City boss Erol Bulut has taken aim at Omer Riza in an explosive interview

Former Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut has hit out at Omer Riza for the manner in which he replaced him after he was handed his marching orders back in September.

Bulut, who guided Cardiff to a 12th-placed finish in his debut campaign, failed to follow up on that progress and was dismissed following the club's worst-ever start to a league season, which featured five defeats from the first six and a solitary point and goal against Swansea City in the term's first edition of the South Wales Derby.

Very few contested the decision to sack Bulut, and the ex-Fenerbache boss was promptly replaced by Riza.

Riza, a former first-team coach at Watford who was brought to Cardiff only last summer by Bulut himself, stepped up on an interim basis and that spell would last a staggering two months before the Bluebirds decided to hand him the permanent role until the end of the season in December.

Since Riza's appointment on a full-time basis, Cardiff have won just five league matches and remain entrenched in an ever-intensifying battle against relegation to League One with just eight fixtures to spare.

Unsurprisingly, Riza has come under increased scrutiny from supporters in recent weeks and, to add insult to injury, he has now been lambasted by Bulut for, as the Turkish boss puts it, going behind his back to jump at the job once he was sacked.

Erol Bulut hits out at Cardiff City boss Omer Riza

Speaking on a Turkish TV show, Bulut held little back in a scathing assessment of Riza and the way his former assistant succeeded him at the helm.

Bulut questioned Riza's motives and has claimed the nature of how he was replaced will be a dent to the Bluebirds boss' reputation, slamming him for failing to ask for his blessing to take the job.

When asked if he felt betrayed by Riza, Bulut is quoted as saying, via WalesOnline: "'Betrayal' is a sensational word.

"I always say this: If I've gone somewhere with my team, the team I built, and we've made an agreement, then when we part ways, we should leave together from there as well.

"The club might have offered it to my assistant. At least if he had consulted with me and said, 'Coach, there's a situation, the club wants me to continue (as manager). What do you think?'

"Because he came (to Cardiff) thanks to me. You should have asked me, because we came here together. We're not the type of people to turn things down.

"If such a question had come up, I would have gladly accepted it from my assistant. Because what does 'assistant' mean? He wants to become a head coach one day, that's his goal.

"But at least if he had come, asked for approval and then left it would have been more graceful. When it didn't happen that way, then, as a coach, I need to think this way... it means, from the beginning, you have had an assistant who has been working behind your back and trying to take your place.

"Well, if that's the case, it will be talked about everywhere, whether in Cardiff or other teams, as 'he worked behind the coach's back'.

"This is not a nice or pleasant thing. It's not pleasant for him, either. It's already not good for him. When the coach leaves from there, what will happen afterwards? Which team will look at that coach and in what way?"

Cardiff City's remaining Championship fixtures under Omer Riza

Riza is facing a race against time to turn Cardiff's season around and stave off the threat of relegation while doing enough to convince Vincent Tan to award him a longer-term contract this summer.

Cardiff are next in action tomorrow afternoon at home to Sheffield Wednesday, and will then travel to two more mid-table opponents in QPR and Preston North End.

After the visit to Deepdale, a huge showdown looms back in the Welsh capital against relegation rivals Stoke City. Cardiff may have their work cut out away to promotion hopefuls Sheffield United on April 18, but will be under no illusions about the importance of clinching all three points when Oxford United travel to South Wales the following Monday.

Cardiff ought to capitalise on fixtures against the likes of Stoke and Oxford, with stern tests awaiting from West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City awaiting in their final two matches.

They can ill-afford to be heading into encounters of that ilk in need of results and must therefore make it count in more winnable fixtures, but their failure to do so earlier this month at home to Luton Town remains fresh in the memory.

With a resurgent Derby County side breathing down their necks, Cardiff need to string together a consistent run of results and look to catch those above them, such as Stoke, Oxford and Hull City.