Cardiff City manager situation is getting farcical as Bluebirds lose ground

It's now more than three weeks since Erol Bulut walked into the press conference room after the last home match of the season, flanked by Cardiff City's chairman and CEO.

That was no ordinary scene and pointed to the manager's situation being poised in a delicate situation. Mehmet Dalman interjected when Bulut was asked about his future – "Why don't you let me have dinner with him tonight?", he said, rather ambiguously.

The end of this week will represent a month since that slightly uncomfortable exchange and we are still no closer to finding out what's happening next. Everywhere you turn you are either met by radio silence or the notion that not much has changed.

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So, what do we know? Well, a contract offer is on the table for Bulut. If it was the one he wanted, well, we wouldn't be talking about this ever-lengthening delay, would we?

The length of the deal is thought to be the major stumbling block. Bulut, who oversaw a big improvement in results in testing circumstances — both in the transfer windows and in terms of key players suffering lengthy injuries throughout the season — to steer Cardiff to 12th, believes he deserves a commitment of more than one year from the club.

"I don't want to be a guest again for one more year, I want to be part of the family for the future." Those were the memorable words Bulut uttered before the final game of the Championship season.

Whether that desire becomes reality, well, we're still no closer to knowing. But this state of purgatory must be ended soon because, as more than one insider has said, it can't go on like this much longer. Supporters are being incredibly patient, while many have even forked out for new season tickets, buoyed by the promise of the last campaign but none the wiser as to who the man standing in the dugout will be when the next season kicks off.

The big worry for fans is that all the hard work and positivity from this season — and it wasn't all positive, of course — will be undone. Just after they endured two painful seasons in which they had to travel the length and breadth of the country cheering on players fighting off the drop into League One.

Supporters are worried that having to start from scratch again brings with it huge risks and a sense of the unknown over the club's direction of travel. Take, for example, Vincent Tan's last interview with the Welsh press 18 months ago, when the club were without a permanent manager, having sacked Steve Morison but had offered Mark Hudson the role until the end of the season.

"I hear talk that we have no plan. Do you honestly think I would have put in so much of my money if I had no plan? Do you think we are idiots? Do you think I would be putting in money every month, particularly during the pandemic, if I didn't want success?," the Bluebirds chief said in November 2022.

Well, 18 months later, if this Bulut deal isn't pulled off, Cardiff will be on their fourth manager in that time. Whether that was always the plan or is the perceived recipe for success is up to fans to decide.

No one is suggesting that these deals are easy to get over the line, by the way. These are men at the top of their fields in Bulut and Tan and both know their worth and influence. Is it a case of who blinks first? Is it how flexible Tan will be over the finer details in the contract? These are multi-million-pound decisions, especially when you factor in transfer demands, bolstering the coaching staff and adding to the recruitment department.

Bulut has his flaws, to which he has admitted, but he also has passion and a desire to drive the club forward. He has already spoken to at least one prospective coach over joining his coaching staff and has personnel in mind when it comes to the recruitment department, too. Indeed, players had even been discussed before the end of the season and some are now the subject of interest from other clubs.

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He wants to bring quality players in this summer and whether the calibre of players — and therefore the fees and wage demands which come with it — has put the jitters into Tan is another theory. But in this division especially, you get what you pay for. There was a surge in player wages this season, particularly with loan signings, partly to mitigate the transfer ban last summer, and the club benefitted. One wonders what they could have done with a goal-scoring striker or two, but that's another conversation.

While Cardiff stagnate, though, other clubs, rival clubs, are moving. Cardiff's state of limbo has a knock-on effect for everyone, not even the players know what's going on other than the odd whisper or murmur. Pre-season plans, the full backroom staff brought in by Bulut, fringe players, those returning from loans and transfer strategy are all things affected by this current predicament.

There are other Championship sides who are already stealing a march on Cardiff in terms of their manager search. Just today, Norwich City, who let David Wagner go after their play-off semi-final defeat by Leeds United, were linked with moves for promotion-winning Steve Cooper, highly-regarded ex-AZ Alkmaar boss Pascal Jansen and FC Nordsjælland's Johannes Hoff Thorup.

Hull City look set to appoint ex-Hamburger SV manager Tim Walter after letting Liam Rosenior leave and Paul Heckingbottom, who took Sheffield United up to the Premier League and Barnsley up to the Championship from League One, is odds-on favourite to get the Plymouth Argyle job.

Rosenior, by the way, who is well thought of and plays an attractive brand of football, is the bookmakers' favourite to take over at Birmingham City after Tony Mowbray today announced he would not be returning to St Andrew's because of ongoing treatment for the illness that forced him to take an initial leave of absence during last season. Reports in France suggest up-and-coming manager Will Still could be announced at Sunderland this week, too.

Cardiff won't want to be caught on the hop, especially because there is genuine optimism that last season provided a really sound platform on which to build next season. Bulut was the first manager to take charge of a full season since Neil Warnock and that continuity and lack of upheaval really seemed to pay dividends.

But, that being said, Cardiff won't wait around forever. Credit to them, actually, for showing real patience in the situation as it is. That is likely down to Dalman being so firmly in Bulut's corner and, as Warnock told us last month, "if Mehmet is in your corner then you've got a chance". Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.

There is a base of a good squad at Cardiff. Yes, they have relied a lot on their work in the loan market in recent years, but there is a core of a good team. The defence and goalkeeper situation is pretty sound, the midfield has been bolstered — but there is still work to do there — while there is obviously room to improve at the top end of the pitch. But hope springs eternal.

Dalman, just hours after interjecting in Bulut's final home press conference, told a roomful of people at the club's awards dinner that they will give the top six a really good run next season and there is still no reason why that can't be the case, as things stand.

This situation can very quickly be flipped into a positive one. It's easy to fall into a negative mindset when so little of the minutiae is known and so few are responsible for such a seismic decision. Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.

There was so much to enjoy about last year for Cardiff fans, notably derby triumphs and long winning runs. And last season, Cardiff were relatively late in getting the manager in — they announced it on June 3 — and then enjoyed a really fruitful and exciting summer.

The lengthy delay can be viewed one of two ways; neither side is budging or the details are still being thrashed out. Either way, the silence is deafening and the natives are understandably getting restless.