As things stand, Mark Hudson is in pole position to land the Cardiff City job.
Don't shoot the messenger!
The Bluebirds are already being inundated with interest in the role after Vincent Tan's ruthless decision to axe Steve Morison and one candidate may yet stand out in the coming days as the light bulb choice.
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But the initial thought process from Cardiff's owner is to put Hudson in temporary charge and see how he fares.
For how many matches is anybody's guess. However, if Hudson starts well, it could even be a period that sees Cardiff right through to the break before the World Cup on November 12 and a reassessment at that point.
For the time being, Hudson is preparing the team for the upcoming matches after the current international break - the October 1 home clash with Burnley, the Cardiff City Stadium game against Blackburn four days on and an away match with Wigan the following weekend.
Ahead of the World Cup, Cardiff also meet Coventry, Rotherham, Watford, Hull and Sheffield United in the Welsh capital, plus QPR, Swansea and Sunderland away. It is a lopsided sequence of fixtures, seven at home, just four away, and thus definitely an opportunity for Hudson to put down his marker.
Cardiff's next match afterwards is at Stoke on December 10. Spookily, Stoke away was Morison's first game in charge. Will that be the case for a new man again, will Cardiff appoint earlier, or will Hudson have done enough in his audition to get the nod from Tan on a full-time basis?
There are more questions than answers at the moment, but these are some of the on-field issues Hudson may choose to tinker with immediately to try to turn Cardiff's fortunes around, get them climbing up the table and impress Tan in his own right.
End of the Perry Ng experiment
Picking full-back Ng at centre-half was pivotal to the way Morison wanted his team to perform. Ng is far more comfortable on the ball than a conventional centre-back and he helps keep possession and start many Cardiff moves. Crikey that's better than the just lump it away approach we had become accustomed to, or Mick McCarthy's shocking five centre-halves selection.
But, rightly or wrongly, you also tend to fear the opposition scoring from headers at the far post, and indeed from set-pieces.
As Morison's No.2, Hudson clearly was intrinsically linked with the methods the former manager implemented, but he will also need to do things his own way. Otherwise what on earth was the point of change, or putting him in temporary charge?
As a no-nonsense Cardiff defender himself, Hudson may choose to go back to basics with two out and out centre-backs whose priority is to clear their lines. Cedric Kipre obviously needs to play, probably with Jack Simpson next to him. Curtis Nelson remains another option.
Where would that leave Ng? Battling with Mahlon Romeo for the right-back berth, perhaps, or even playing on the left maybe? He's surely good enough to be in the team somewhere.
Start picking Colwill
Despite Morison's plethora of new signings, Wales youngster Rubin Colwill still looks the best player at the club in the eyes of many.
It's mystifying that in a team that struggles to create or score goals, Colwill's obvious credentials have been consistently overlooked this season. Some of us even kind of feared Colwill could be a case of Morison shooting himself in the foot a little. A huge proportion of the fans were demanding his inclusion, particularly as it became patently obvious the team needed his craft.
Yet Colwill has only started one game. You almost felt Cardiff needed to be losing, or struggling in games at least, to get him on the pitch and hope he could work some magic to turn things around in a short space of time. Although the playmaker has struggled with his fitness this season.
Yes Colwill is a luxury player, but he's also a potential matchwinner. The kind of performer Hudson might need to take a punt on and back strongly if Cardiff are to start getting victories under their belt again.
He has proven he can deliver goals and assists in the final third of the pitch, where it really matters, and those are commodities Cardiff have been short of this season. Colwill can play between the lines, beat a man, possesses the vision for a probing pass. Of course he's inconsistent, but perhaps focus on what he can do, rather than what he can't.
No-one is saying play someone who is still learning the game in every match, but start him more often definitely. With something of a free rein brief, too, to get Cardiff ticking and cause damage in and around the opposition penalty box.
Hudson may opt to pick Colwill as his playmaker at No.10, with three offensive players ahead of him.
Or how about Romaine Sawyers at 10, with Colwill one of the three ahead? Surely that would make Cardiff more menacing in front of goal.
Something evidently needs to happen.
A more adventurous approach
The above section is directly linked to this one, as a slightly more aggressive team selection from Hudson might put Cardiff on the front foot from the start of matches, rather than needing to play catch-up.
When they have looked in charge, Birmingham at home and Middlesbrough away, Cardiff have won. However, you always feared if they went a goal behind, they would struggle to get back into it.
Cardiff fans don't really want to be seeing a midfield of Wintle-Rhinomota-Ralls. Two of the three, yes, but either Colwill or Sawyers with them, plus two wide men and Callum Robinson up top.
John Toshack once said a football team needs seven to carry the piano and four to play it. Cardiff certainly need four offence-minded players in their line-up for every match, supported by full-backs on the overlap and midfielders getting forward to score themselves.
Yes it might make Cardiff a little more vulnerable at the back, but what's that old adage of offence being the best form of defence. Anyway, Hudson knows we're hardly talking gung-ho here.
He also knows he needs to pick an XI that looks far more likely to score goals from the start of games, rather than see the team go a goal down and then hope substitutions can turn it around.
Any caution Morison had was totally understandable, given it's a completely new team, players need time to gel. But perhaps the shackles can come off just a little bit?
Be more direct
The above, it must be emphasised, does not not not (just one more not again for emphasis) mean a return to Warnockball, McCarthyball, or for that matter Harrisball or Sladeball.
Morison deserves enormous credit for bringing Cardiff City out of the dark ages with a more possession based game, as well as overhauling the squad so the players today are more suited to the refreshing new style.
But you do feel at times Cardiff are a little too ponderous with some of their passing and need to fizz the ball around more sharply, even get it forward more quickly at times.
The stats show the following. Cardiff had 67 per cent of the ball at Huddersfield, 56 per cent versus Millwall, 64 per cent against Luton, 55 per cent at Bristol City and 61 per cent at Reading. They lost each of the games, the only stat that really matters. They also only scored two goals in those five matches.
Hudson needs to keep the new approach as a template and build upon it, but he may well choose to modify it and ask the Bluebirds to mix it up a little, getting the ball over the top for their front men to run onto on a more regular basis.
Sort out the wide men
Keeping the team fresh is a massive plus in the grind of the Championship, but Hudson may wish to settle upon a front three and stick with it, rather than retain a mix and match approach.
Callum Robinson is a shoo-in at nine. Which two play with him out of Ojo, O'Dowda, Harris and Philogene? Why have we not seen Ollie Tanner, who arrived amid hype and fanfare during the summer about the special qualities he possesses?
Is Colwill part of that front three mix, with Sawyers at 10?
Cardiff do have options these days, welcome ones at that, including players who should be capable of changing a game from the bench. That ensures fresh legs, no-one can rest on their laurels. Credit Morison for his transfer dealings for that.
However, Hudson may decide the time has come to settle upon his favoured XI and to by and large stick with it.
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