No old pal’s act warns Hughes
CHRIS COLEMAN has led Wales to a period of unprecedented success, taking his team to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 last summer at their first major tournament since 1958.
It means the former defender is hugely popular with his country’s supporters, who are already dreaming of a place at the 2018 World Cup. Coleman, below, is equally desperate to make it to Russia, but ahead of his team’s qualifier with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin tonight, the 46-year-old has insisted he will not continue in his current role past next summer.
Coleman was linked with his hometown club Swansea earlier this following the sacking of Bob Bradley and remains likely to move into club management next.
But for now his focus is on Wales, who sit third in Group D, four points behind Martin O’Neill’s leaders. Coleman has played down the idea his team must win at the Aviva Stadium but has made clear his desperation to end his time with Wales with a place at another major competition.
“I’m 46, so I want to work for as long as I can,” he said. “I’m only going to be Wales manager for a certain amount of time. You can’t get it back.
“I need to make the most of what I’ve got. When I finish here, I’ll go to a club job. I’ll never do this job again and I’m quite sad about it. But I’ll make the most of it while I’ve got the honour.
“I’ve been doing it for five years and if I see this campaign through it will be six-and-a-half, seven years. I think that’s a long time as an international manager, but there’s still a lot to play for in this campaign.
“I’m desperate to make a tournament again. It’s the only word I can use – I’m desperate to go back and be in the middle of that type of pressure.
“I absolutely want that again. I don’t think about what happens if we lose. I’m always confident with my team. We can beat anybody.
“People are saying this is a must-win, that it’s more important for us than Ireland. It’s not. Even if we were six points clear, this is the most year R IRELAND SERBIA WALES AUSTRIA GEORGIA P W D L 4 4 1 0 2 0 3 0 1 2 2 2 6 3 A PTS 7 5 4 2 WEST HAM striker Diafra Sakho is unlikely to play again this season.
The Senegal international, right, needed surgery after a back injury in November. He is now in light training but will need a long time to build fitness.
The club’s medical head, Stijn Vandenbroucke, said: “Diaf is essentially at the start of his own personal preseason training schedule.” STOKE manager Mark Hughes has warned Phil Bardsley, Glen Johnson and Charlie Adam that their futures are up in the air.
The Welshman wants to bring down the average age of his squad and invest in youth.
That could mean full-back Bardsley, 31, former England defender Johnson, 32, and Scottish midfielder Adam, 31, could be sacrificed. All three players are out of contract at the end of the campaign.
“We’ve talked with most of them,” said Hughes. “With Glen it’s down to game time and he could trigger an option by playing, so that’s still on track.
“Phil, we’ve had discussions with, and Charlie has intimated he would like to stay. You’ve got to get the balance right in terms of the make-up of the group.
“Those are good characters as well and you don’t want to lose too many of that type. But we can’t carry everyone. We have got a group of predominantly senior players.
“So we will be carrying less senior players next year and see where it takes us.” CHELSEA’S Eden Hazard has had a major boost in his battle to recover from a calf strain and is now expected to be fit to face Manchester City on April 5. The Belgium midfielder, left, missed the Blues’ 2-1 win at Stoke last week but the injury has responded more quickly than expected to treatment and he is set to return to training next week.
SAINT-ETIENNE have been fined £43,000 by UEFA for the poor behaviour of their fans during last month’s Europa League clash at Manchester United.