Wales likely to wait on replacement for
WELSH football chiefs are prepared to wait until January before choosing Chris Coleman’s replacement as they refuse to rush the decision on who to name as the new national boss.
And it could be a good job, given the struggle for anyone to come up with an obvious, outstanding candidate as to who to lead the next stage of Wales’ golden generation era.
The key men on the Football Association of Wales panel that have the job of selecting the new manager are yet to meet and officially discuss their ideas on who should fill the shoes of Coleman, who shocked supporters when he turned down the offer of a new Wales deal to take up a role at Championship strugglers Sunderland.
Each will have their own thoughts and bring their own names to the table during a meeting expected to take place within the next fortnight.
And, as well as going on the hunt, they will officially advertise the position as they look to explore every avenue ahead of such a key decision.
But, with speculation and supporters not as patient, names have already been thrown around while some have already gone on record with their interest.
It’s a safe bet, whenever the panel does sit down, the three currently top of the bookmakers’ odds will be on the agenda: Ryan Giggs, Tony Pulis and Craig Bellamy.
Yet while managerial appointments are never straightforward or free from debate, the fact there is almost zero consensus among ‘Red Wall’ members about who should now lead them says much about the difficulty facing the FAW.
While there are plenty of positives to all three – or why else would they be in contention? – it would be wrong to say there aren’t issues to consider, making this anything but an open-and-shut case.
TONY PULIS
Newport-born Pulis’ name was always likely to be mentioned, regardless of his situation with West Brom.
He is, after all, one of only four Welshman to have held down permanent Premier League jobs (Coleman, fellow former Wales boss Mark Hughes and ex-Norwich and Everton boss Mike Walker being the others). That he is out of work following his Baggies boot has given the FAW extra reason to consider the 59-year-old.
You can’t doubt his Premier League experience, gaining a reputation as a survival specialist, but it isn’t favoured by all, given the way he generally goes about it. Albion fans put up with it when it brought results but then quickly turned on him when even the latter failed.
With qualification for Euro 2020 the aim, there is an argument that states Wales fans wouldn’t care how they did it as long they could savour another summer finals.
Yet, there are no guarantees that the style would transfer to the international stage. Even when Ireland did a number on Wales in that killer crunch game in Cardiff, there was always the feeling