WALES LEGEND TOSHACK ON WALES AND BALE
BALE INJURIES – I WARNED GARETH HE WAS KICKING THE BALL WRONG WALES MANAGER – PULIS HAS BEST CREDENTIALS OF CANDIDATES MY GREATEST GAME – THE WALES WIN THAT ECLIPSED REAL MADRID EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AS PFA HONOUR WELSH LEGEND FOR 1,000 MATCHES IN THE DU
I’VE known Chrissie since he was very young and used to play in the same Swansea under-10s side as my son Cameron, I helped get him the manager’s job with Real Sociedad.
He knows I’ve always been supportive, but sometimes international management is about timing – and without doubt Chris was able to enjoy the best years of this group of Welsh players we first started bringing through a decade ago.
He did brilliantly in the Euros, but will have been disappointed at not getting the team to the World Cup.
These players were more than good enough – ability-wise and in terms of being the perfect age – to finish top of that group, or second at the very least.
When you look at Ireland, and how they were thumped 5-1 at home by Denmark in the play-offs, it just underlines why we should have beaten them.
Chris will wish it could have ended differently.
He took over the job in entirely different circumstances to myself and Brian Flynn, when we had to change the old guard and bring through the young players who have gone on to do so well.
Neville Southall and Ian Rush were in charge of different age-grade sides at the time, but I changed that and gave Flynnie responsibility for the under-17s, 18s and 21s. It wasn’t a popular decision back then, but it was the right one and I note Wales have kept that format since.
Because we were rebuilding, I barely got to watch a Premier League match. Our players were coming through the Championship or below. Gareth Bale was with Southampton, Aaron Ramsey with Cardiff.
Of the team that started against Ireland, nine were given their debuts by us. That was several years ago, but Chris was able to choose them as Premier League regulars.
I remember Flynnie telling me about Ashley Williams for the first time. ‘He’s worth a look.’ So off I went to watch Hereford versus Stockport County in League Two at Edgar Street.
It was a noon kick-off and I’d quickly seen enough to convince me about Ash. So I headed back to Wales to watch Cardiff v Norwich. Ched Evans was playing – and got injured. The next day, Sam Vokes was playing for Wolves at Bristol City, collided with the goalkeeper and was carried off.
We had a game against Estonia that week. I was trying to ease Rob Earnshaw out. Then Simon Church limped out of our first training session.
So, we were without the three strikers I wanted to go forward with. “Earnie, get your boots,” I had to say.
We won 1-0... and funnily enough he scored the winner.
But those injuries were typical of the problems we were beset by. Bale was out for months and months, Ramsey had to miss more than a year with his broken ankle.
OK, Bale was absent from the recent decider with Ireland, but Chris will also know that by and large he had much better fortune with injuries.
GIGGS, PULIS OR BELLAMY FOR THE JOB?
THE FAW have quite a tough decision to make on Chris’ successor. It never seems straightforward with us, does it?
Bellamy has no experience of management, with Ryan it just hasn’t happened yet for whatever reason.
Pulis has lots of Premier League games behind him, but he’s never taken charge of a team in a European tie. That’s not unimportant, you know.
You suddenly have to look at travel, food, hotels, different training times. Some countries make it more difficult for you than others – you learn that through playing at that level.
Giggs has certainly got the stature because of his name and playing background. It would be easy to choose him, but I wonder if there is something that doesn’t appeal to the FAW?
To be perfectly honest, none of the candidates overwhelm me. However, Pulis is also being honoured by the PFA for more than 1,000 games in the dugout and for him to be in the company of men like Ancelotti, Benitez and Ranieri is a big thing.
He’s approaching 60, a good age for international management, has got loads of big-time experience with Stoke, West Brom and Crystal Palace, he’s Welsh. And whilst people criticise his style of football, I think that’s a little unfair.
What I’d say is that Pulis has got more credentials for the job than a lot of the other names being bandied around.
But let’s not get too carried away here. We’re not talking Guardiola, Conte or Ancelotti, are we?
They’re not each as daft as I was in putting their names forward for the salary on offer!
WARNING BALE ABOUT INJURIES
I’M bringing out a book next year and in my closing chapter I name the best XI players I’ve managed. Gareth gets in the side, ahead of Giggs, so he is in lofty company because there are seven World Cup winners in the team.
However, I am concerned with these injuries he keeps getting – some of which seem different to the normal ones you associate with footballers.
I remember when Gareth was a teenager and we were training ahead of a game in Cyprus. He was lining up a free kick in the inside right position, ran towards the ball and suddenly struck it with the outside of his left boot.
Straight away I could see that wasn’t natural. From that position you either run from out to in and curl the ball with your left instep, or you run straight and take it with the inside of your right foot.
‘Gareth, you can’t do it like that, you’ll get injuries,’ I told him straight away. It was an action that wasn’t normal. As managers we spot that kind of thing instantly and in my 50 years in football I don’t remember anybody else kicking a ball like that.
Then, the other night on TV, I saw him make his Real Madrid comeback against Fuenlabrada in the Spanish Cup. He did exactly the same thing again, this time with a cross from which Madrid scored.
Outside of the left foot, even though he’s down the right wing. Everyone was saying what a fantastic cross it