I think we're going to sign Des and/or Chris but not because of a lack of ambition, rather because of a fear of failure.
Worst case scenario the club has 3 1/2 years of existence left. We had four years to trigger the first extension, and at the time the club said that the terms were reasonable and achievable, but that was when we had four years.
We write this season off and we have 3 years left, and maybe that reasonable four year goal is suddenly a challenging three year goal. So we need to be starting the growth from this season, and we need to be playing finals football to do that.
When he left Ernie said in an interview that he could turn the team around but not quickly enough, that tells me that we need to be performing this year, we can't afford to rebuild.
So what we need is a coach who can hit the ground running and get the best from the team without any preparation. Therefore we need someone who knows the team well, and preferably knows the league. We could risk it all on an unknown who may excel, may crash, or may take time to cement their systems and get the players they need, or take the less risky option and pick someone who is already getting acceptable results.
Hence, for the risk adverse the only candidates are Buckingham, Greenacre, and perhaps Hudson.