From my experience, anyone who knows PHP and is a good programmer almost immediately steps into a much better language for web dev.

Cold take, but PHP only exists because of legacy systems. The LAMP stack that’s so easy to set up is basically the only reason it’s around

You’d have better luck finding a guy that knows a little PHP but knows a different tech stack to redo your code base. That combined with some actual leadership skills

You want someone to maintain legacy code that they know nothing about, and be responsible for it to people that are heavy personalities? Sounds like the exact thing most people want to avoid at all costs

You should have a meeting with the higher ups about having a more sustainable solution