One thing you tend to see a lot of in modern football is managers being approached to discuss a job at a club while the incumbent manager is still there, either as part of a succession plan or as a matter of urgency in the middle of a season when the club needs closure on the next manager straight away.
Of course, this doesn't happen for every managerial appointment, some boards are better at forward planning than others and this also tends to have an effect on who gets the job. I'm not familiar with the hidden attributes off the top of my head so I don't know if there are certain attributes that would affect forward planning or if this would require new attributes.
My proposal would effectively include the following:
1- Not all boards will look to recruit a manager ahead of parting company with the one currently in charge. Some will either prefer to take a few weeks to find the next guy or some just won't be good enough at forward planning to do this.
2- In cases where managers are recruited 'in advance', the attributes affecting forward planning will have an affect on who comes in. For example, a board that is good at forward planning will appoint not only a successful manager, but a manager that is a close fit to the club vision (i.e. a manager who leans towards tiki-taka been hired by a club that want to play possession football); whereas a board that isn't as good at forward planning will appoint someone who isn't such a good fit.
3- The recruitment process can either consist of the existing interview-staff changes-contract model, or be something more discreet and informal, such as being approached to discuss willingness to move, club vision, whether the manager would like to take charge immediately or at the end of the season and so on.
4- You have the option of enquiring about a job if a manager's job status shows as 'insecure'
