After nearly two weeks of waiting, it seems Cardiff City are finally closing in on a new manager.
Former Nottingham Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi is close to agreeing a deal that will see him installed as Mark Hudson's successor in the Bluebirds hot-seat, and he seems poised to bring City hero Sol Bamba with him as his number two.
There's little time for bedding in. Nor is there much margin for error, with Cardiff staring straight down the barrel of a relegation dogfight.
READ MORE: Sabri Lamouchi closing in on Cardiff City manager job with club legend Sol Bamba as his assistant
Getting the best out of the current group, and maximising the opportunities of the final straight of the January transfer window, is an absolute minimum if Cardiff are to be playing Championship football next term.
Lamouchi clearly feels he can handle the challenge, and in Bamba he could hardly have picked an assistant with a better inside knowledge of this club. But Bamba's selection goes beyond misty-eyed nostalgia. Speak to anyone about what Lamouchi demands from his players and his backroom team and they'll tell you that reliability is the trait he holds most dear.
Bamba is a figure he clearly believes he can count on, although this is a partnership that's been brewing for the best part of 10 years, and goes all the way back to when they were working together in the Ivory Coast set-up.
Lamouchi came under serious pressure on the back of a disappointing quarter-finals African Cup of Nations exit in 2013, and it's surely no coincidence Bamba was his most vocal supporter in the press at the time.
He said back then: "The players want [Lamouchi] to stay but in Africa when you lose a game, they’re used to sacking the manager. Hopefully it’s not the case but we’ll have to wait and see."
Lamouchi survived, and paid back that faith by including Bamba in his World Cup plans a year later, despite the centre-back not playing a single minute of club football in that calendar year.
In hindsight, it was a gamble that perhaps didn't pay off, with the Ivory Coast crashing out in the group stages, an exit Lamouchi never looked likely to come back from.
But putting the disappointment of that campaign to one side, it's clear Bamba saw something in the 51-year-old. Fast-forward to now, it seems little has changed in that regard. Bamba, a man with his own managerial ambitions, clearly feels Lamouchi is someone he can learn from. Who knows? It could well pave the way for him to one day get the top job himself.
For a club that's lacked so much in terms of joined-up thinking, this feels a small step in the right direction, but the realities of taking this job mean there will be no shortage of pitfalls for both of them along the way
Lamouchi's time at Forest means he's not going into this job completely blind. Indeed, despite falling agonisingly short of the top six positions in 2020, courtesy of a bizarre final day that saw them pipped to the post by Swansea City, Lamouchi is still very fondly remembered by those at the City Ground.
Forest weren't always easy on the eye under his stewardship, but a string of positive results and a noticeable zeal for the job was clearly at the heart of winning over many fans.
"Overall, I think he did a great job," Sarah Clapson, Nottingham Forest correspondent at the NottinghamshireLive, explains.
"When he first came in he managed to establish a good relationship with the supporters, which is something previous managers hadn't really done. He really started to get fans falling back in love with the club a bit.
"The way he spoke in press conferences, he was so passionate about the job. You could tell he loved being at the club and working with the players. The way he spoke about them, saying things like he loved them like his own children. I think fans just loved the way he came across. He was a really good talker. Really good to listen to, and it clearly made a massive difference. He just got what it was like to be at Forest and the stature of the club."
Addressing the disconnect between Cardiff's fans and the team will clearly be one of the key priorities in their relegation fight. So many Bluebirds fans have spent the season drifting between indifference and outright anger over the direction of the club, and if those grievances can be healed, and the fanbase galvanised once more, it will undoubtedly work in Cardiff's favour.
As for the football itself? Well, judging by his time with the Reds, it's likely to be functional and, at times, downright ugly.
"The football wasn't always great to watch, and a lot of the time they were lucky with the results they got," Clapson continues.
"Forest were very much a counter-attacking team under him.
"So, it wasn't easy on the eye, but they knew how to play to their strengths. They found a way to make it work and it ended up taking them up the league.
"It was quite defensive at times, but when they did play it forward they could put together some wonderful moves. He had an idea and managed to get results from it, but it wasn't the most entertaining football at times."
Morison-ites will likely howl with anguish at those comments.
But needs must at the moment, and Lamouchi does have a decent record of getting the best out of players. Matty Cash in particular owes his Premier League and international career to his time working under the Frenchman, having made the switch from midfield to full-back with huge success.
If he can achieve similar results with even a couple of Cardiff stars, the results will surely come.
Lamouchi himself will be out to prove a point. The disappointment of blowing that play-off place ultimately proved too much of a psychological barrier to recover from and, with him seemingly now on the verge of a route back into English football, there will be plenty of motivation there to make his mark on this league.
Cardiff will be hoping more than most that he does just that.
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