Gunter denies senior Wales players begged Coleman to remain in job

Chris Gunter has denied player power tried to keep Ryan Giggs’ predecessor Chris Coleman as Wales manager.

Wales’ new era under Giggs starts tomorrow as the Dragons kick off the China Cup against the hosts in Nanning, with the Czech Republic and Uruguay also involved in the four-team tournament.

It is the first time the Wales squad has been together since Coleman – who guided the country to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 – surprisingly chose to end his six-year stay as national team manager in November and take over at Sky Bet Championship strugglers Sunderland.

Gunter was among a group of senior players who reportedly lobbied Coleman to remain, but he said: “It was made out that there was a group of players who were knocking his hotel door and begging him to stay. It wasn’t quite like that because players don’t really have an influence on what happens above.

“We wanted the manager to stay, because he was a massive part of Welsh history and everybody loved playing under him. But in this case I think we were the last to know what was going on.”

Gareth Bale, pictured, trained with the Wales squad only two hours after completing a marathon 7,500-mile trip from Madrid. Bale was a scoring substitute in Real’s 6-3 La Liga victory over Girona on Sunday night before taking a private jet to Luton Airport straight after the game. The 28-year-old spent the night in Richmond and was at Heathrow early on Monday morning to board an 11:10am flight to Guangzhou, the journey to the Chinese city taking ten and a half hours.

Bale then had to spend another four hours in transit before taking another flight to Nanning. He did not arrive at the team hotel until 1pm local time, but just over two hours later he was at Wales’ first China Cup training session at the Guangxi Sports Center.

Bale’s commitment to the Welsh cause is a boost for Giggs and the Football Association of Wales coffers.

It is understood the FAW will receive £1 million for playing in the China Cup, but were reportedly set to suffer a £100,000 penalty if Bale did not feature in the tournament.