Cardiff City: Vincent Tan urged to monitor Ruben Selles situation at Hull City | OneFootball

Football League World's Cardiff City fan pundit wants to see Hull City boss Ruben Selles become the club's next permanent manager

Cardiff City can ill-afford to prolong the process and waste precious time in appointing a new permanent successor to Omer Riza following relegation to League One for the first time in a generation at the end of the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

The Bluebirds finished the season rooted to the foot of the table and six points shy of safety, with caretaker manager Aaron Ramsey simply too short of time to save the day after taking over from Riza on a three-game basis following his sacking last month.

Ramsey, who is still under a playing contract with the Bluebirds as he nears the end of his two-year deal penned back in the summer of 2023, was the third manager to take to the dugout in 24/25 after Riza and Erol Bulut, and controversial owner Vincent Tan has been urged by the masses to implement tangible strategy, stability and continuity to buck the downwards trend both on and off-the-pitch.

Cardiff's managerial turnover is remarkable, really, with the club having no fewer than seven permanent bosses in charge since the start of 2021 alone, and they must act fast in order to ensure ample preparation for what will be hoped, at least, a promotion charge in League One next season.

Salford City manager Karl Robinson is reportedly a "top contender" to land the vacant managerial hot-seat, while former defender and current AFC Bournemouth assistant, Tommy Elphick, has emerged as the bookmakers' favourite as of late.

However, another name potentially worth monitoring is Ruben Selles, who faces an uncertain immediate future with Hull City days after retaining their second-tier status.

The Spanish head coach was linked with a move to Cardiff during his time in charge of Reading, where he earned plaudits for having the Royals in League One play-off contention despite continually dealing with hellish circumstances away from the pitch under Dai Yongge's perilous ownership of the club.

Selles managed to keep Hull in the Championship, but is reportedly fighting for his job as Tigers chairman Acun Ilicali continues to run the rule over him ahead of an impending decision on whether to stick or twist.

Vincent Tan urged to appoint Ruben Selles at Cardiff City if Acun Ilicali opts for Hull City sacking

FLW asked our resident Cardiff fan pundit, Matt Hall, whether he believes Selles should be on the Bluebirds' radar if Hull decide to part ways with the ex-Southampton boss.

In Matt's view, Selles' credentials at League One level - dealing with troubling circumstances at Reading, directing a rebuild and having a makeshift squad in play-off contention - would make him an ideal candidate for the Cardiff job as the club prepares for its first third-tier campaign in more than 20 years.

“Yes, I think Ruben Selles actually was on our radar before he went to Hull but we were rather stupid in our decision to not go for him,” Matt told FLW.

“But with us now in League One and him potentially leaving Hull, if that does happen I would be all for it.

“You look at the credentials of the man, focusing on his time at Reading. He took over Reading at a time where they were under a transfer embargo, lost a lot of their senior players and basically had to rebuild the club. He had to deal with terrible, terrible owners.

“If you look at what he’d have to take over here, he’d be taking over a squad with maybe not so much ego, but players that would forcibly want to go and he would have to put that togetherness. Reading fans always said there was good togetherness with that side.

“He’d also have to bring in some young players, there’s going to be a lot of reliance on the academy and he would also have to deal with a pretty difficult owner.

“So I think credentials wise, he’s good. He does play some good football when he gets the chance to, but I think the most important thing is he gets results.

“For him to have Reading in fifth when he left, I think if you translated that into the squad we could potentially have, then I’d like to think we could challenge for the top-two.

“We also have to have a manager that translates into the Championship. Whereas with a manager like Karl Robinson who has been linked, we wouldn’t really get much further than League One. With him, if he went into the Championship with us he would struggle.

“Selles, in a bit of a car crash at Hull, managed to just about keep them up. So you would be confident that if he took us up, he would keep us up.”

Hull City's Ruben Selles could be the perfect long-term appointment Cardiff City need to make

Matt is justified in calling for Cardiff to monitor Selles' ongoing situation at the MKM Stadium. At 41, Selles is a young and progressive head coach who has shown his multi-faceted ability to be pragmatic and grind out results when needed, while also deploying a more possession-based, attack-minded style of play.

He has real experience working with younger players, and harnessing the youthful profiles in Cardiff's squad such as Alex Robertson, Cian Ashford, Dylan Lawlor, Yousef Salech and Joel Colwill - among others - alongside continuing to promote academy talent is a crucial call of duty for whoever comes in as manager in the coming weeks.

Selles, of course, would have loved to spend longer at Reading, though the predicament in Berkshire evidently took its toll.

He may well hope for a longer reign at Hull, too, of which we will have more clarity on in the days to come, but he fits the bill of being a project coach who can develop sustainable and upward long-term foundations.

That's exactly what Cardiff need right now, having swept through managers of contrasting styles in recent years without any sense of continuity, and Selles could quite represent the perfect appointment if Ilicali decides to relieve him of his duties.