posted Mar 27, 2007

Terrible article, terribly written.

So full of holes I don't know where to start.

Oster a 'consistent premiership footballer'? He's started about 3 league games this season, and is reportedly on his way to Wolves. Since when should a player be allowed to hold a team to ransom? I refer you to his unwillingness to cancel his summer holidays to join up with the team. If he picked up the phone and apologised for his misguided comments then he'd be in the squad.

We could have Wenger in charge, we'd still be awful. We simply don't have the players. Even Brazil can play badly sometimes. Wales has to perform at its best in every game just to have a chance of winning, anything less and you get what happened against Ireland.

We've got problems for sure, but getting rid of Toshack won't solve anything, in fact, if you think we are bad at the moment, there's the possibility of being even worse.

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posted Mar 27, 2007

I think Toshack's work will come to fruition in qualifying for the World cup. However it is frustrating to see such an inept Wales performance, in which for periods we really dominated possession and terittory, without creating a clear cut chance. Very disappionting. But a change of management now would surely be a step backwards?

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posted Mar 27, 2007

im on the fence in fairness.

I hate seeing us play these games and not gettin any real results. its frustrating also because under toshack i havent felt like the welsh side have acheived very much or built upon the time mark hughes was at wales.

i mean in all honesty, under mark hughes i actually felt as if the side were improving and were possibly goin to be contenders for qualification in 08.

Now im left hoping for the world cup, which we all know is a larger task in the long haul.

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posted Mar 27, 2007

Come on, be realistic. Sparky (one of my heroes, by the way) could call on players of the standard of Gary Speed. Not many of them, but 2002-03 was our golden age as far as our players were concerned. We we conned out by frickin' drugs cheats in the play-offs, and many of the players (Speed included) left the team. Fair enough, they did their bit, they were quite good enough to conquer the likes an Anabolic Steroid or Nan Dralone.

Toshack has a long injury list, and he's bringing in players who will be serious quality one day. So let's back him until 2009 at least.

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posted Mar 28, 2007

The author of this article has deleted this comment.

posted Mar 28, 2007

I think that Toshak is doing a good job of a difficult situation other than the slovakia game when we have lost we havent lost by much and even in that game slovakia had five shots and scored with all of them. Wales are playing the best football i have ever seen them play. This is suited more to the international game. I feel Toshack has and is taking Wales on to a higher level and will get us a close if not further to qualifying for a major championship in time. The welsh public just need to have a little faith. The only thing he could do better is get the boys to learn the national anthem which would help fill them with passion and pride before they kick off.

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posted Mar 28, 2007

Johnny Unitas - Before having a go and picking holes in my article maybe you should look at your own reply. Altough he hasn't started every game for reading when he was played he has done well against a very high level of opposition therefore is a Consistant performer (note i didnt say starter). A manager should work to make sure he has the best players available and not be stubborn, we have seen it not just with Oster but with other players such as Robbie Savage and Ben Thatcher.I just feel he is over looking players who could do a job in welsh shirt due to his own personal problems with them, where as a manager should at least attempt to get these players back and in the squad espcially when we are hit with injurys.

Ok a good replacment would be hard to find, but should we just be happy whatever Toshack does ? I feel with no pressure on him he seems to do what he wants and doesnt matter who he upsets in the process.

If you notice the article heading was more of a question than a statement hence no full stop, all i call for is that Toshack should not be made to feel his job is safe and that he should make the most of the players available to pull on that red shirt.

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posted Mar 28, 2007

I tend to agree - I think we would have had a better chance of qualifying for Euro 2008 if the likes of Savage & Hartson had been available. Admittedly you can't legislate for injuries and when our two best defenders (Gabbidon & Delaney) get injured and our most (only ?) creative midfielder is suspended, there's not much to be done. I like the fact that he's brought in Ricketts, Bale, Nyatanga, Ledley, Parry etc but the object of the exercise is to qualify for tournaments and its disingenuous to argue that we had no cutting edge against Ireland after playing Bellamy upfront on his own !

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posted Mar 28, 2007

Toshack is the right man for the job for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I think it's refreshing for a manager to be outspoken about a poor performance, what would you rather a manager who is passionate and hurt after a defeat (and I genuinely think he is) or one who makes excuses and refuses to acknowledge that his £150m squad are a joke (McClaren)? I know which one I'd prefer...

Secondly, I must commend him for not being afraid to blood some youngsters, such as Nyatanga, with precious little club experience nevermind international experience. These youngsters need to gain experience some how and I think we'll see the fruits of this learning period in a few years. Also, Tosh isn't trying to fit square pegs in round holes like McClaren and I hope he sticks to this. It would be easy for him to play experienced players out of position.

Thirdly, Toshack is trying to improve us technically, which can only be good news. I actually think that we've been playing some good football since Toshack took over with mostly a very inexperienced side (especially defensively). The results haven't all been good, but I agree with the person above who said that we'd only lost narrowly in the majority of them.

Overall, Toshack is moving us forward and as he said we didn't win a game in 10 under the last regime. Toshack's stats are much better.

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posted Mar 28, 2007

On the subject of the 'missing players', I think Toshack's in a difficult situation; He cannot be seen to be walking on eggshells with the more senior players because it brings his authority into question and sets a bad example to the other members of the squad.

IMO he has to try to treat all the players the same and not create 'special cases' for himself involving certain players.

If I was, for example, Robbie Savage and I was desparate to play for my country, I would contact Toshack and say "Look, we've had our differences, but my time is passing and I'm desparate to play Wales, so can we clear the air?", to which Tosh would probably respond positively.

Players who constantly sulk and moan don't deserve to play for their country, even if they aren't always in the wrong.

I'd love to play for Wales, not sure about some of the players who are currently missing...

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