Taylor perfect fit for Bradford City if they act quickly enough

The Bantams have a vacancy to fill following Stuart McCall's resignation five days ago and the noises coming out of Valley Parade suggest the plan is to appoint an interim manager until the end of the season.

Interviews began yesterday and will continue today and Monday as City search for a manager who can, hopefully, put the club back in the fast lane and reverse the decline of the past decade.

Joint-chairmen Julian Rhodes and Mark Lawn, the latter having made his money after founding Driver Hire in Bingley, are determined not to be rushed, hence their desire to make only a temporary appointment at this stage.

A permanent decision will then be made in the summer, with whoever gets the nod this month likely to be in a strong position providing results are positive.

Such caution is perhaps understandable, especially at a club where 13 managers have passed through in a little over two decades.

However, it is to be hoped the City board are willing to be flexible during the interview process as, otherwise, they run the risk of missing out on an outstanding candidate.

Put it this way. If you, dear reader, had been to two interviews in the past fortnight and were subsequently offered both jobs, which would you take? The one where the only certainty is you will be there for three months? Or the one with genuine long-term prospects?

Lawn and Rhodes are understood to be pleased with the calibre of applications. Managing Bradford, despite the wage budget having to be slashed in half last summer following the failure to win promotion for a second year, is clearly still an attractive proposition.

Peter Taylor, Peter Jackson, Jim Magilton, Iain Dowie and Steve Cotterill are all believed to be in the running to succeed McCall, while former striker Dean Windass is also interested.

Another manager currently employed by a rival club was initially on City's radar, though it seems the trail has since gone cold to leave only those who are out of work in the hunt.

Most of those interested in succeeding McCall above would arrive at Valley Parade boasting an impressive CV. Taylor, Jackson and Cotterill, for instance, have all taken teams up from the basement division. In Taylor's case, he has achieved the trick twice – with Hull City in 2004 and Wycombe Wanderers last season.

The flipside of being a club that is attractive to managers with proven track records, however, is that they will also be of interest to City's rivals. Taylor, for example, is still interesting Notts County.

With three months of the season still remaining – and 30 managers having already left their post this term – clearly further openings will become available, which is why City will have to be more decisive.

Missing out on a perfectly good manager because Bradford are unwilling to offer sufficient security – or, at least, as much security as a manager can realistically expect in modern day football – would be crazy.

Of course, choosing McCall's successor will be a tricky business. All the names mentioned would bring their own attributes to the job.

But what this column fervently hopes is the Bantams board learn from the lesson of when McCall, who had spent the past two decades in the top two divisions, was appointed along with Wayne Jacobs, the latter having come from Conference side Halifax Town where he had been Chris Wilder's assistant.

City must, therefore, make recent experience of managing at this level a priority along with a proven track record of getting out of League Two.

For those two reasons, Taylor, whose budgets at Hull and Wycombe when clinching promotion to the third tier were not as large as many believe, has to be considered the most suitable candidate with Cotterill a close second.

Either way, it is to be hoped the Bradford board remove any semblance of doubt early next week and make the new manager a permanent appointment – allowing the planning for next season to start in earnest.

Otherwise, City risk being left on the starting grid once again.