posted Oct 20, 2007

I believe that Toshack has lost the dressing room. Wednesday saw a team that did not want the shame of losing to San Marino but wanted to make a point by just refusing to playin the second half. Toshack has to go. Coleman, Saunders, Speed ..... my mam, can all do a far better job !

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posted Oct 21, 2007

You can see that there is no passion in the players when the anthems are played. Every other team's players shout/cry their hearts out during their own anthem. Ours just stand their silently looking gormless. Why dont they learn the anthem? I dont speak Welsh myself, but have managed to learn it. It's not that difficult. They seem to spend more time inventing goal celebrations rather than learning the anthems (Not that we see any of these celebrations!)

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posted Oct 21, 2007

Bluebirdtillicroke - I agree, i think a requirement of an international call-up should be to learn the anthem. Really, it's embarassing, and it doesn't help the players' argument that they are passionate about playing for Wales when they don't bother with the anthem.

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posted Oct 21, 2007

well im not a welsh fan. I am English and i belive Bellamy is a very good player, a bit of liability with his temper, but hes wales best player (along with bale) and there captain they need him.

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posted Oct 21, 2007

The players, by and large, no longer live in Wales, play in an English environment, and do not
socialise at all with supporters. The main source of players, urban south-east Wales, differs in its type of Welshness to that of West Wales, where a lot of our rugby players come from. A professional footbaler is invariably marked out as such from a very early age, and hence misses out on the intellectual maturing that education sometimes brings. Money is all that matters to them. They think that they are patriotic, but because their lives are so apart from ours, their take on it is different. Welsh-speaking footballers alway sing the anthem, but with the recent report into the paucity of Welsh-language teaching in most South Wales schools, I'd be surprised if any of the players have the slightest idea what
an anthem and a nation is.

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posted Oct 21, 2007

bellamy is a talented individual who goes through crests and troughs in the process of a season. when he is feeling content within himself, not smashing up bars, hitting women or getting into fights on a saturday night, his pace is an asset for the team. at present he has taken a dip in form. he requires an understanding manager who is prepared to work with this flawed talent.
any wales team should be built around the youngster bale at the heart of it with koumas in support and leading to torrent of attacks through bellamy and earnshaw. i don't think that there is a lack of passion. these players get paid a pittance to play for theoir country. all professionals feel honoured to represent their country and i am sure that is the case for the welshmen and women. what they need is a young and understanding manager who is capable to instilling some pride into their ability. the likes of bellamy, earnshaw, gale, koumas and gabidon don't turn into bad players overnight. the nucleaus of the side need to compensate for the other players who don't play at the highest level.

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posted Oct 22, 2007

Coleman is the best Welshman for the job.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A28012402

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posted Oct 24, 2007

Now bear with me on this one……

When Hughes took over, he had no managerial experience. Now whether you think he did a good job or not, he certainly managed to get some pride into the team.

Having been a striker, he helped us develop an attacking squad which looked great up front, albeit a little dodgy at the back. He played to our strengths and usually picked the best players available. The thing he understood the most was that having the crowd on side was all important as proved in the display against the Italians.

Now here’s the bit where I lose you, the crowd……

To me there are only two people who can bring that element of team spirit and pride back.

Candidate 1 – Robbie Savage. At least he shows that he cares about Wales and ironically is the only one who is showing the passion that Toshack wants. He would turn the midfield into a team that is very hard to get through. The only down side is that all Tosh fans would hate him.

This leaves:

Candidate 2 – Big John Hartson – a welsh legend.He would get the forwards firing – just hink how good Eastwood would be with the big mans help. Also, John is at a bit of a loose end at the moment and the fans would love him. And who wouldn’t love to see the manager stripping down in the last 10 minutes of a game and coming on to score a goal?

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posted Oct 25, 2007

"the likes of bellamy, earnshaw, bale, koumas and gabbidon don't turn into bad players overnight." (Shaibal)

To expand on this, it smacks of a team who have lost faith in their manager. I've seen each of these have great games for club and country in the past. Recently however, they look very poor in the red shirt. If their 'national pride' has never faltered, there is nothing else to point to.

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posted Oct 29, 2007

nickpcr wrote: "Toshack is a good manager. Of all the home nations he has the absolute least to work with in terms of quality".

Sorry Nick, I totally disagree with you there. On paper Wales have as strong a squad as Northern Ireland and possibly even Scotland. The difference is that Northern Ireland and Scotland get in the faces of the opposition, work hard as a team and have had some success as a result. The majority of the Welsh players just turn up, show no passion and go through the motions for 90 minutes. I watched the Italy home game again the other night and I think Wales made more tackles in that game than they have in the last fifteen games under Toshack. There is a distinct lack of passion in the side at the moment and I'm afraid Toshack must be blamed.

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