Hull City pushing to appoint ex-Liverpool and Man City player to replace Ruben Selles | OneFootball

The Tigers may have found their Ruben Selles replacement.

Hull City are making a move for Spanish boss Albert Riera as they hunt for Ruben Selles' replacement.

Acun Ilicali, the Turkish owner of the club, has dropped hints about the Tigers' pursuit of a new boss. He told Hull Live that he wasn't happy with either Selles' results or how his team were playing, which led to Ilicali feeling that there was a need for change, but he did admit that the decision to part with the Spaniard was not an easy one.

The Humberside outlet were also told by the businessman that five managers were in contention to be Selles' successor, and that reported targets Michael Beale and Emre Belozoglu had been spoken to by the club. Neither are said to be likely options to take over at the MKM Stadium.

Albert Riera emerges as Hull City manager target

Ilicali did, however, suggest that one of the five, an unknown option, was currently in pole position, and that the recruiting process could be finished within a matter of days.

He said, to Hull Live: "We have football minds in the club that will decide about this manager, and I cannot say at the moment to you that this one is like this or this one is like this, but what I can say is that I'm very hopeful to finish the deal in one week.

"Yes (there are other potential candidates), because you only hear about two of our candidates. At the moment, we have five and one of them looks day by day more suitable for our club, but none of you know the name."

That person may well be Riera, who is reported by Alan Nixon to be the man that City are after. The 43-year-old currently works for Slovenian side NK Celje and has them fourth in their division with one game left to play in their regular season. They competed impressively well in the Europa Conference League this season, getting to the quarter-finals where they were knocked out on penalties by Fiorentina.

According to Nixon, he wants to return to the UK, where he played for Liverpool and Manchester City in his younger years. A compensation package for him is not expected to be much of an issue, however it did prove to be for fellow managerial option Miron Muslic, the Plymouth Argyle manager.

It was also stated by The Sun journalist that a tax issue for Beale caused issues with him becoming Hull's next manager.

It had previously been reported by BBC Humberside's Mike White that the Tigers were considering appointing another foreign manager to coach the first-team that stayed up on goal difference this season, after coming close to a play-off finish in the campaign before.

Albert Riera would be another bold move by Hull City

Whatever you may think of Hull's decision to part ways with Selles, that era at the MKM is done now; it's time to move forward and look towards a hopefully brighter future.

If Riera is to be the one that they go for, there's no doubting that Ilicali's statement about him not being on people's radars would be correct. His lack of notoriety shouldn't necessarily be used against him though.

He's managed Celje across two stints which sandwiched a spell with French side Bordeaux. Riera has some proper coaching pedigree and the European run that his side went on this season only enhanced that.

Knowledge of the English game shouldn't be a problem for him, although coaching in it is a slightly different matter to playing. You certainly can't say that Hull wouldn't have done their research, though, because Riera is by no means an obvious candidate.