Exclusive: Don Goodman raises one concern with Cardiiff City appointing Brian Barry-Murphy | OneFootball

Leicester City coach Barry-Murphy is a strong contender for the Bluebirds vacancy

Cardiff City are still on the hunt for their permanent Omer Riza successor, with caretaker boss Aaron Ramsey seemingly ruling himself out of the post.

Riza was fired by the Bluebirds hierarchy just a few games before the end of the 2024-25 season, in what was one final roll of the dice to try and avoid relegation from the Championship, but putting Ramsey in interim charge did not work as they dropped into League One.

With Ramsey revealing he wants to continue playing instead of moving into management just now, Vincent Tan is having to look elsewhere, and one name that has emerged in the past week is that of Brian Barry-Murphy.

Don Goodman outlines Cardiff City "gamble" over potential Brian Barry-Murphy appointment

According to a report from Darren Witcoop last week, 46-year-old Barry-Murphy is now a top contender for the Cardiff vacancy, and he isn't without his League One experience.

Having kept Rochdale in League One in the 2019-20 season in his first year as a manager, Barry-Murphy unfortunately suffered relegation to the fourth tier in 2020-21, although his style of play caught the attention of Man City, who hired him as their head coach of the Elite Development Squad.

A winner of two Premier League 2 titles with City, Barry-Murphy left last summer to pursue other opportunities, and he eventually landed the role as one of Ruud van Nistelrooy's assistants at Leicester City, although with the Dutchman set to depart the King Power Stadium, it could soon leave him without a job.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman believes that appointing Barry-Murphy would be a massive risk for Cardiff, given the fact he doesn't have too much experience as a number one in the senior coaching game.

"It's a very similar answer in terms of Lee Grant to Huddersfield," Goodman told FLW.

"Although Brian Barry-Murphy has had a little bit of senior experience at Rochdale, there is no question that managing under-21's is enormously different.

"So, it would be a gamble, there's no doubt about it, but Cardiff City, I've gone on record as saying before, I'm not sure what calibre of experienced head coach of manager they'd be able to attract.

"Until Brian Barry-Murphy gets his chance at the level, then we're never really going to truly know (what he's capable of)."

Brian Barry-Murphy may be worth taking the risk on for Vincent Tan and Cardiff City

There are perhaps two roads Cardiff could go down here when it comes to finding Riza's successor.

The first one is the been there and done it type for League One, although most of the potential candidates will likely have a small ceiling for if Cardiff do win promotion at the first time of asking.

The more unproven types though, such as Barry-Murphy, are a bigger risk but could also reap a greater reward, as it's clear to see that he likes to play a certain brand of football on the floor and it's been recognised by a super-power like Man City.

In hindsight, the Rochdale job was a tough one and he did remarkably well to keep them in League One in 2019-20, so perhaps Barry-Murphy is worth taking a chance on by Cardiff, given the stuff he will have learned at the Cityzens and also Leicester in recent months.