"Open goal for Vincent Tan" - Cardiff City owner urged to seal Steve Cooper agreement | OneFootball

FLW has been speaking with our Cardiff City fan pundit to discuss whether Steve Cooper would be the right man to take charge of the Bluebirds.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has been urged by our Bluebirds fan pundit to appoint ex-Leicester City manager Steve Cooper.

It's understood that Cooper would "relish" the chance to take over at the Cardiff City Stadium, but has concerns over how it would come across given the time he spent in charge of fierce rivals Swansea City.

Cooper has recently found himself out of work after being dismissed by the Foxes on 25 November, after a five-game winless run saw the club sitting 16th in the Premier League at the time.

With current Cardiff interim boss Omer Riza appearing unlikely to be handed the job on a full-time basis, our Cardiff City fan pundit Jack Price believes Tan should swoop in for Cooper, and install hims as the new man in charge in an attempt to turnaround their season.

"Open goal for Vincent Tan"

We posed the question to our Cardiff fan pundit, Price, whether Cooper is the kind of manager that Tan should be approaching at this moment in time, given the constant uncertainty over the managerial position.

Price said: "Steve Cooper would represent a fantastic appointment for Cardiff. Given the fact that he wants the opportunity, makes it something of an open goal for Vincent Tan and the board.

"I think we need to be all over him. Particularly so considering the uncertainty and doubt surrounding Omer Riza's tenure. It doesn't look like he's going to stay on, the board clearly, rightly or wrongly, aren't convinced by him.

"Cooper would be an inspired appointment. His CV speaks for itself, he's got a great record in youth football, which definitely makes him desirable to an owner who's ploughed a lot of money into improving the club's academy in recent times.

"He had success down the road with Swansea by getting them to the play-off final with very limited resources, and then he took Nottingham Forest from a precarious position after taking over from Chris Hughton, back to the Premier League.

"He kept them up before being sacked, and now he's since been sacked again by Leicester. He's not going to get another Premier League job anytime soon is he? But, that makes him a viable candidate for us, a realistic candidate, and someone I'd welcome with open arms.

"I think a lot of Cardiff fans would. The caveats are of course Cooper's Swansea past, and also the fact that his assistant is Alan Tate, who, to put it lightly, is not very popular with Cardiff fans. A real stalwart at Swans.

"So, it would be interesting to see how that plays out, and you feel that's perhaps the only thing going against Cooper. I'd be all over it, even though it's obviously a bit of a tricky one regarding his Swansea links.

"Cooper's believed to be a Cardiff fan, his dad is a Cardiff fan, he comes from the area (Pontypridd), so he knows what the club's about and what the fans want, knows what it means to the people. Have we always had that from managers in recent years? I wouldn't necessarily say so.

Cooper may not have enjoyed the greatest of success as a Premier League manager so far in his career - although you can argue both his Nottingham Forest and Leicester sackings were harsh on him -, he certainly knows what it takes to succeed at Championship level.

It's his record in the second tier that makes him a standout candidate for Price too, as our Bluebirds fan pundit continued: "I think he would be the perfect medium-long-term appointment that we need because, despite where we are in the league at the moment, and the fact that relegation is a possibility, I don't want a sort of firefighter in the mold of like a Sabri Lamouchi from a couple of years ago.

"You want someone who's going to build something, and a manager who you feel you can have success with. Because ultimately, if you don't think that manager is capable of getting you to the Premier League, what is the point in it because what are you aiming for?

"That's what we should be aiming for, and Cooper's got a proven track record of delivering that. So, I think if we were to appoint him he'd need time, if he was to come in soon, you'd probably have to give him the rest of the season to keep us far away from relegation and steady the ship.

"Then have a real good go next season. But he's somebody who I would be massively behind. I think he's a top manager, and given his own stance, which did come as something of a surprise to me, I did wonder if he'd be a bit out of our reach, but given that, Vincent Tan needs to get it done."