WALES SHOULD DARE TO DREAM
‘Underdogs’ no longer as Dragons eye the final say
TO UNDERSTAND exactly where someone is, it’s sometimes necessary to understand where they have been. That seemed the way of things as Chris Coleman outlined his thoughts and hopes ahead of tonight’s European Championship semi-final with Portugal in France.
This remains ‘pinch-me’ territory for Wales. Just as it still feels strange to write Leicester City and Barclays Premier League champions in the same sentence, so the presence of Coleman and his players in the last four of Euro 2016 feels as if the world has been turned brilliantly upside down. At the heart of the picture is a manager whose own backstory fits the narrative of the underdog perfectly.
Tonight’s game will revolve around central characters such as Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. Both are superstars.
Coleman, however, has walked a different road on the way to France. Fulham (sacked), Real Sociedad (resigned), Coventry (sacked) and Larissa of Greece (resigned) would not seem like ideal grounding for international achievement but that is not how Coleman sees it.
‘It can be hard, you know,’ said Coleman. ‘If you get it wrong two jobs running then it’s hard to get a third one.
‘That’s generally the rule. I got it wrong at Coventry. I could give you sob stories but, if I’m honest, I should have done better. I know that. Then I was out of work for a year and my next job, four years after managing in the Premier League, was managing in the second division in Greece on the advice of Alex Ferguson.
‘He’d told me to take whatever came up, so I did. That was one of the best things I’ve ever done because you find out a lot about yourself when you are outside of a comfortable environment.
‘You’re asked different questions and you have to have the answers. Eventually I resigned there and the next job was this one.
‘But all that time there stood me in good stead, definitely.’
Much has changed in Coleman’s life, professionally and personally, in recent years that has brought him to where he is now.
He seemed a little emotional yesterday when asked questions that he has heard before, particularly those about the death of his predecessor and friend Gary Speed.
‘I think about him every day, not just because I’m at a tournament,’ said Coleman. ‘I don’t need Wales football to remind me of my friend. He could be sitting here where I am, enjoying what we’re enjoying.
‘Unfortunately that was taken away. But we always remember Speeds. I don’t need football to do that.’
It was beautifully put by the 46year-old, who has struck the right tone throughout this competition. Summer tournaments are peculiar environments for players, particularly those who have not been to one before. Lots of down time, lots of time to think. As such, the mood set by the manager is more critical than at club level.
Coleman prefaced Wales’ first game against Slovakia by saying his players were not in France to make friends and that bullish sense of purpose, mixed with doses of realism and humour, has been mirrored in the way his team have played.
A feature of the Wales journey has been that it stopped feeling like a fairytale from the moment they won that first game in Bordeaux. Ever since then, Welsh progress has been so steady and assured that it has stopped taking people by surprise.
Iceland’s passage to the last eight always felt like an adventure that had to end. It no longer feels that way for Wales. They beat Belgium so comfortably in last Friday’s quarter-final that they will approach this next challenge confidently.
‘We believe in each other,’ said Coleman. ‘We’ll go into this game as the underdogs. Portugal have been in seven semi-finals in tournaments. This is our first one.
‘That’s no problem. It’s about Wales, the players, about them walking on to the pitch knowing they’re safe in each other’s hands.
‘They trust each other, as so they should. It’s only about us, what our core values are and what we believe in. You’re not guaranteed a happy result, but you can guarantee knowing you offered what you offered, and that’s all we can ask for.’
Coleman’s dilemma tonight will be how to replace the suspended duo of Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies.
It is understood that midfielder Ramsey will be replaced by Leicester’s Andy King. But there is no natural replacement for Davies on the left side of Coleman’s three-man defence, so he must choose between West Ham’s James Collins and the younger Fulham defender Jazz Richards.
How Wales cope with change may be fundamental to the outcome. Portugal only finished third in their group and are yet win a game in normal time. Wales say they are underdogs but they should not feel that way and the chances are they won’t. Extraordinary achievement awaits them.
Only a fool would bet against Coleman taking them to Paris on Sunday.