PAGE CAN BOOK IT
Hartson backing Dragons boss to make knockouts
THEY have known each other for over 30 years since playing together for Welsh schoolboys.
And that shared history is the reason John Hartson believes Rob Page can put Wales on track for the European Championship knockout stages tonight.
Both 46, the lifelong friends started their professional careers near each other – Hartson at Luton and Page at Watford – while sharing train journeys together to and from international duty.
Now Page is the Dragons manager tasked with trying to take them out of Group A.
Page has only been in charge for nine games since last November when Ryan Giggs was replaced after being arrested.
But Hartson (inset), who also did his coaching badges with Page, believes his “stubborn” pal has the steel to ensure Wales handle the heat of Baku against the Turks today.
Swansea-born
Hartson, who won 51 caps, said: “We were kids in the Under-13s to Under-15s for Wales schoolboys and then progressed all the way to the full national team. We go back a long way.
“Robert was from a little village in Merthyr, I know his family and his dad very well and vice versa. When we played our parents would stand on the touchline.
“Rob was always a leader on the pitch. He was very vociferous in terms of pointing the finger and giving orders.
“He was very determined and you knew he had a great chance of going places and standing out. He would grit his teeth and he was stubborn.
“Sometimes you need that because when you cross that line you want to win and achieve and you have to be a little bit cynical.
“I thought Pagey could do that and that is probably why he was Graham Taylor’s Watford captain.” Page ended
up leading a team and scoring in all four divisions of English football during spells with the Hornets, Sheffield United, Cardiff, Coventry, Huddersfield and Chesterfield.
His managerial CV was less distinguished, with spells at Port Vale and Northampton. But the former defender, who won 41 international caps for Wales, has thrived since moving to the FAW in 2017 to become Under-21s coach.
Two years later he was promoted to Giggs’ firstteam coaching staff and is now at the helm. Hartson said: “He has gone through it the right way since we did our coaching badges together. “He has his opportunity now in unforeseen circumstances. But he has stayed very grounded and humble. I like the way he comes across. “It is a bit different now and he has had to put his own stamp on things. But I am sure he is enjoying that pressure.
“It is a totally different role, being an assistant to being the manager. Assistant managers never get sacked because you are not really making the big decisions.
“But he has a great opportunity now to put his own stamp and philosophy on the team and the group.” FORMER Wales international John Hartson is calling on the grassroots football community to nominate their grassroots hero in the 2021 Welsh FA Grassroots Awards, presented by Mcdonald’s. There’s still time to nominate now at www.mcdonalds.co.uk/awards