By Graham Thomas
Still, he waits.
Omer Riza is a patient man and it appears if you work for Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan then you need to be.
Tan seems to regard patience as a virtue, so long as it’s not him who is expected to show any.
The Malaysian multi-millionaire goes through managers at the rate some people change their bin-liners, even those bosses who are far from complete garbage.
But when it comes to the managers themselves, they can be left wondering and waiting as they try to decipher whether or not they are the man for Tan.
Erol Bulut was kept dangling over contract negotiations last season, eventually given one, and then sacked on September 22.
Mind you, he had only taken one point from six matches.
Now, it’s the turn of Riza to wait and wonder. He has steered the Bluebirds away from the bottom of the table and carried them along an improbable six-match unbeaten run until they lost at Luton Town in midweek.
But the Londoner still has no idea if he has done enough to be given the manager’s job on a permanent basis.
What is clear is that Tan and his board had no concrete plan over who they were going to turn to when the owner chose to fire Bulut.
As they pondered a replacement, they hoped Riza would provide them with time. What they clearly did not reckon with was that he would also provide them with a dilemma.
He has over-achieved and a glance at the current form table for the Championship shows that Cardiff currently stand fourth, over the period of the last six matches.
Interestingly, the club at top – unbeaten in their last six matches – are Millwall, managed by Neil Harris.
The Lions boss is another ex-employee of Cardiff and Tan. He guided them to the play-offs a few years ago, on minimal resources, did not quite make it to the promised land of the Premier League, and was sacked shortly afterwards.
Now, Harris is enjoying the faith of his current club – if not much in the way of finances – and they sit fifth in the Championship after four successive victories.
Riza must envy that kind of stability and certainty. As he prepares Cardiff to host Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, he knows his own future is very much still uncertain.
He has tried to apply a little bit of gentle pressure in public, but it has made no difference so far and now he feels it could be the club itself that loses out if the drift continues.
“It’s not just about winning and losing,” says Riza. “It’s about the environment that is put in place and the processes that you work within.
“We are coming up to January and so in respect of transfers – and in and out – and what is going to happen, if things are left too late then it will cause more problems.
“It would be nice to have a transfer window, two transfer windows, to build slowly and create more and more.
“I had two objectives when I came in. Oen was to make sure we were an attacking side and that every time we got the ball the opposition were scared.
“The other was that we are disciplined and work really hard. But there’s no point me thinking about what we can turn this club into if I don’t know if I’m going to be here or not.”
So, the wait goes on. A victory over Blackburn would strengthen Riza’s case. Although it may be that Tan already has other plans afoot.
Things can change quickly, not least in the league table, where Cardiff, although above the relegation zone only on goal difference, are also just seven points off the play-off places.
DragonBet feel that victory is more likely than a Rovers win on Saturday and make Cardiff 13/10 favourites, with the draw at 12/5 and Blackburn priced at 2/1.
Swansea City may have recorded back-to-back victories following their recent struggles, but they are still underdogs to win at Burnley.
They are 14/5, with the draw at 5/2 and Burnley close to even money at 10/11.
Wrexham are 8/11 favourites to beat Mansfield at The Racecourse, whilst Newport County are 7/2 outsiders to win at Tranmere.
