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On the 27th of November 2011, I woke up from a deep post night out sleep and went through my usual morning ritual of automatically checking the day’s headlines on sky sports news. Usually this would be followed by an attempt to make some sort of egg based breakfast, which I would eat with an accompaniment of Chris Kamara and Ben Shepherd’s jovial Goals on Sunday banter. On this morning, however, I did not switch channel. Instead I looked almost in disbelief as the famous Sky Sports News yellow banner, which usually whisks the latest transfer news into my life, brought the news that the Welsh national team manager Gary Speed had been found dead.
Although I couldn’t claim to be affected by the sad news on a personal level, as a fan of football it was clearly a big loss. Speed had enjoyed a very successful playing career in which he gained many medals, appearance records and the respect of his fellow pros. Captaining his country and every club he had played for, it was clear Speed was a leader and as a result a career in management was a given. After spells as a player/coach at Bolton and Sheffield United, Speed went on to take the reins at the Blades for a short period before taking charge of his country.
Under Speed, the Welsh national team went through a period of revival and upheaval. Aaron Ramsey, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder, was announced as the Country’s youngest ever captain. This would be a sign of his philosophy as he sought to utilise the young talent at his disposal, the likes of Bale, Allen and Neil Taylor, and build a team who would play an attractive brand football together for many years to come. Although this didn’t seem to be a rewarding strategy in his first few games, with losses coming against Ireland and England, Speed’s Wales went on to become the most improved team in the FIFA rankings. They finished the qualifying campaign with series of victories over the like of Bulgaria and Switzerland before thrashing Norway 4-1 in a friendly that would ultimately be Speed’s last game in charge.
With the loss of Speed leaving a big space at the heart of what had become a very close-knit national team, there was the inevitable mixture of speculation and nonsense regarding who his successor would be for the game organised in his honour against Costa Rica. The list of potential candidates featured the usual mix of wry old managers, former players and basically anyone who was Welsh.
One of the first people to put their hat in the ring was the current assistant manager, compulsive tweeter and chum of Craig Bellamy, Raymond Verheijen. Verheijen, who has stirred up controversy throughout his career by belittling the training methods used by many of Europe’s top clubs, continued his top form by announcing on his twitter page that he would like to be the new manager and Gary Speed has in fact endorsed him prior to his early death. The decision to release this statement was widely criticised and labelled as selfish by former players and captains alike, and was followed by him calling for a foreign manager to be appointed. However, one thing that did go in Verheijen’s favour was the public backing he received from the national team’s two brightest talents, Bale and Ramsay, who hoped he would stick with the attractive brand of football they had become accustomed to.
On the opposite end of the scale in terms of footballing philosophy is Tony Pulis. The man who has led Stoke into the Premier League and further buried any hopes the baseball cap had of ever becoming cool again, also hinted at his willingness to take charge of the team. Pulis had mentioned that should his country need him he would be more than willing, should Stoke allow it, to take charge of the team against Costa Rica in a sort of babysitter role. There are two reasons that this option was never likely to become a reality. The first is that every teams needs stability and to bring in a coach for just one game would make no sense. The second is that Pulis is a man whose preferred style of play and inbuilt desire to throw everything long would make you have second thoughts about him babysitting your child for 90 minutes, never mind your national team.
My favourite of all the candidates was former player and now outspoken pundit, John Hartson. Hartson comes into the category of proud Welshman. This is a category in which the candidate regularly refers to their pride in their country due to their lack of any other relevant attributes. In an attempt to make up for a lack of coaching experience, Hartson went on to explain that he was very familiar with the formation that the team played. The evidence being that he played as a lone front man flanked by Bellamy and Giggs. If the team did intent to hit the byline and whip in the sort of ball that Hartson would regularly bang in with his head, they would be more than able to due to Steve Morrison. Morrison is a hardworking frontman who has the look of someone who would be willing to head anything. Uday Hussein’s concrete ball training methods would surely not have fazed him.
Alas, Big Bad John was not successful in his application. This may be in part due to the fact that the use of Speed’s backroom staff was a big issue for any manager who would come in. Whilst discussing this issue, on the day he announced his desire to lead the Welsh side, Hartson showed all the composure and delicateness of touch that he was famed for during his playing days, by labelling the current assistant manager a disgrace.
The man who eventually got the Job was the underwhelming favourite, Chris Coleman. Coleman, a man whose record in management is only made to look good when put up against his abilities as a co commentator, was appointed on the 19th of January.
When it was mentioned that Coleman was a candidate for the job, it led many of his former team mates and colleagues to leap to praise him, with players such as former captain Robert Page making the, not so obvious, claim that Coleman was the obvious choice. Coleman’s last three jobs ended in two mid-season walk outs and him gaining the record of taking Coventry to their lowest league finish in over 45 years.
The one hope for Coleman’s time in charge is that he doesn’t feel the need to put too much of his identity on the team. They are clearly happy with the style of play they had been playing and many of the midfielders, the likes of Vaughan, Allen and Ramsay, would not suit a more direct style of play. This, when combined with the fact that Wales’ first Premier League team, Swansea, have gained many plaudits with their daring yet controlled play and have produced some amazing statistics in terms of passing accuracy, with English centre midfielder Leon Britton beating Xavi to the top spot and Joe Allen also making the top ten, proves that the Welsh have an ability and a hunger for good football.
Although some of this article may seem to mock the appointment of Coleman, I genuinely hope the growth of the Welsh national team continues and that in turn it proves that with the right attitude and a decent level of technique you can create a brand of football that combines being entertaining with picking up points. With decades of tight defences and brave performances preceding them, the likes of Bale and Ramsay can surely only hope that things keep going the way they are and they don’t join the likes of Ryan Giggs and George Best in the list of extraordinarily gifted players who were never fortunate enough to play in international tournaments.
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Owen, originally from the cultural hotbed of South Lanarkshire, moved
to Edinburgh in 2008 where he begin dabbeling in student stand up
before begin to perform regularly in 2010. Since then he has been
spreading his brand of pessimism all over Britiain, mainly edinburgh
although he once did a gig in Berwick, and is preparing for a joint
venture at this years Fringe.
A fan of both Hamilton Accies and Manchester United, Owen has a love
for holding midfielders and players with average ability scoring
screamers (See Youssef Safri against Newcastle)
“Fresh, inventive and caustic” – Paul Sneddon.
“Owen McGuire’s opening pitch to the audience immediately warmed them
to him and kept up the jovial momentum of his riffs of teaching drama
in Larkhall.” – The Scotsman.
