Omer Riza sends clear message to Vincent Tan at Cardiff City | OneFootball

Cardiff City interim boss Omer Riza has called for clarity from Vincent Tan amid an impressive upturn in form as of late

Cardiff City interim boss Omer Riza has called for clarity regarding his future with the club.

Vincent Tan remains in pursuit of a 12th permanent managerial hire in 14 years of his ownership following the sacking of Erol Bulut, who was relieved of his duties a month ago yesterday.

Cardiff endured a miserable start to the 2024/25 Championship campaign under the Turk's tuition, losing five of their opening six games and having just a solitary goal to show.

The Bluebirds were rooted to the foot of the league when Bulut was sacked and they did stay there for a short while under Riza, although fortunes have improved exponentially since his appointment on an interim basis.

After contending with a baptism of fire during Riza's first game in charge, a 4-1 loss to Hull City in September, Cardiff have not lost since and are off the back of consecutive commanding home victories and clean sheets against Plymouth Argyle and Portsmouth.

Cardiff's resurgent form as of late has lifted them up to 19th position, having put Plymouth to the sword in a stunning 5-0 thumping on Saturday afternoon before romping to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Portsmouth last night.

The uncertainty over Riza's future remains pressing, though, and Cardiff will doubtless need to come to a decision sooner rather than later. Cardiff, who were reportedly left underwhelmed with the overwhelming majority of available managerial candidates, are comfortable keeping Riza in situ for the time being, but he has called for clarity.

Omer Riza sends Vincent Tan message at Cardiff City

Riza has made little secret of his ambition to land his first full-time managerial role in recent weeks, and some supporters are now beginning to make the same demand.

Others, quite reasonably, want to see a bit more of Riza before arriving at the same conclusion, but either way, the situation is uncertain and Cardiff do not appear poised to make an appointment just yet.

After taking Cardiff to their third league victory in four league games on Tuesday night, Riza revealed his conversations with Tan and declared that clarity would benefit all parties.

"I have chats with the owner all the time. I spoke to him this morning and he was very nice and polite," Riza told WalesOnline.

"Clarity is always best because then you can really move forward with the plans the club's got in place or the plans I might have.

"Of course, it would be nice to have some clarity, but in the meantime what's important is that we are going well. We are getting the points and we have climbed off the bottom off the table.

"We're in a better position than we were there and that's important because from there you can always move forward."

Omer Riza will face his biggest tests at Cardiff City soon

Riza has done an admirable job by instilling confidence and courage into the Cardiff side, who are now playing with a newfound energy, tempo, attacking initiative and sense of control in games.

That is exactly why he has backers on his side among the Cardiff faithful, some of whom would have nothing in the way of a complaint if he was to be handed the reins full-time right now.

Lifting the Bluebirds out of the relegation zone given they were rock bottom only a few games ago is an impressive feat, all things considered, potentially strengthening Riza's prospects of being appointed permanently.

He will, however, face something of a limitus test in the coming weeks before November's international break, where Cardiff will play West Bromwich Albion, Norwich City, Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers.

Barring Luton, who have had an inconsistent start to the season after their relegation from the Premier League, all of those sides are in the top-seven and will be expected to provide stiffer tests than what Cardiff have already faced.

They are next in action at West Brom and Saturday afternoon, and a result in the West Midlands would do Riza the world of good. If he can come away from his side's next four games with a couple of victories, then, Tan will surely have to make a decision and hand the job to him.