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Ampadu was the best player on the pitch last night. Thank goodness he’s now committed to Wales.
I watched the game – unaware of the result – at 3am. I had recorded it on BBC2 Wales.
I had watched the game in Dublin in real time…I guess I sensed that the pressure would prove too much for ROI. But nothing made me expect that kind of demolition job…and it was not all down to nerves.
It was down to an astute manager, who made Ireland’s Martin O’Neill and Wales’s Chris Coleman appear like amateurs, when it came to tactical nous.
So I was delighted that the Danes won, and also – perhaps a bit shamefacedly – that the slightly thuggish Panamanians got their last gasp equaliser.
My support for the Danes did not stem from the fact that I live in a town founded by a Dane called Grim (the suffix “by” meaning “the settlement of”), but because of an irrational hostility to the ROI soccer team (though interestingly I have no aversion to the Irish rugby team, and was positively rooting for the Northern Ireland team’s heroic efforts in their second leg in Basel).
My pleasure in seeing my country thwarted at the death, is far less complicated…I am highly sceptical of Cookie’s motives. So I did not want his possible last game to read on his CV as “victory over an opponent who has qualified for next year’s World Cup finals”.
He is ostensibly stringing the Welsh public along with his delayed answer as to whether he will sign a new contract, by saying it is all about doing his best for his staff: to have some of them employed full time. I note that this list includes a psychologist.
What …?
Thou canst not be serious, Cookie…!! Full time …? You are having a laugh. What would Brian Clough say of such modish nonsense…? He would doubtless say that the blinking MANAGER should be the psychologist. Crikey the job only involves CC working 3 days a month on average.
You could not make it up. What next…? A full-time …priest…?!
If this head-reader is agreed to by the FAW, then I suggest that they do not employ a psychologist, but a PSYCHIATRIST …but to work on them, the FAW. Not the playing squad.
And as for Mr Coleman: he is a very personable chap who one senses on one level loves national fame, and having all that free time to socialise instead of work. But one senses also that it is not out of the question that if Everton do not land the Watford manager, they might come for him with a £3m a year offer. And that he would take in a heartbeat.
It does not suit him to sign just yet.
Let’s hope the estimable Watford manager stays where he is.
As for the game last night… yes Paul, you and AMO are right. Ampadu played very well.
But the boy Brooks…oh my dear aunt…!! The real deal. What a talent.
He has it all. Notice how he has one thing in common with Neymar, who I also saw a bit of last night.
They both positively GLIDE across the turf: both are magnificently elegant athletes. Brooks is a superstar in the making…and Ampadu not far behind. And the boy Woodburn too will have a very good career, methinks.
Thanks both for your replies. Anthony, having now seen Ampadu play, as opposed to watching the odd You Tube video showing a few seconds here and there, I can see what all of the fuss is about. Dai, I don’t think the Danish manager pulled any tactical masterstrokes, he probably couldn’t believe his luck when Martin O’Neill (someone who I usually think is more tuned in tactically than most in his profession) reacted as if there were only ten minutes left, instead of forty five, when he went for broke by withdrawing his two deep lying midfielders for two more attack minded operators – Denmark had showed they were the more talented team in the first half, but it’s often the case that Ireland face sides with more ability than them, yet they often find a way to overcome them. O’Neill’s reaction was so unlike him and the way his team approached the second half was so unlike them.
Sorry, but I’ll always want Wales to win no matter what might or might not be going on in the manager’s head at the time – as I said in my piece, I can’t get too worked up either way about what happens to Chris Coleman, I’d like him to stay, but we’ll muddle through somehow (and, you never know, may even prosper) if he goes.
Thanks for your considered response Paul.
Just a couple of things I need to clarify…
I have always regarded myself as British first, and Welsh second.
So I don’t really feel too rotten about myself at my delight in seeing the late Panamanian equaliser. When I was ten years old, I would have cried real tears at that setback at the death…not any more.
And I feel pretty much the same on the Wales rugby team. I really want both to stuff England and the really big countries, but when the Wales egg-chasers play say, Japan – or more topically Georgia – then I support the minnows.
Interestingly there is only one team I do not want the opposition to score against, and that is why I post on MAYA …and not on a Man U or Chelsea fanzine.
As for Cookie…it has just been announced he has got the Sunderland job. Ha! I feel totally vindicated in my comments. He was clearly hiding behind “helping get better job security” for his assistants, before signing a contract. It stood out a country mile to me. Even Stevie Wonder could see his cunning.
Bet he is disappointed it was not Everton though. They’d have paid him a couple of million a year more…and how he would have just LOVED the chance to stand tall and look across Stanley Park at “Kloppo”.
But no doubt he will be on a seven figure salary on Wearside. With the promise of a lot more if he gets them promoted.
No danger of that, but his man management is very good and he will avoid relegation with ease, methinks.
But he has no real tactical nous, alas. I said as much in your pages when he succeeded Gary Speed. He will perhaps now be succeeded by Ryan Giggs: and if so, I am more optimistic than most. My hunch is that Giggs has more about him tactically, but I would doubt if he can match Cookie’s outstanding ability to give his men such a sound collective sense of identity.
Btw, I stand by my comments on the Danish manager. He seems to me to be twice the coach that O’Neill and Coleman are…put together…!!
I watched both those Danish games all the way through…and it was evident in the first leg that the Danes found ways through that seemingly impenetrable defence that Wales could only have DREAMT of. Wonderful switches of the play with long diagonal balls.
And Schmeichel not afraid to kick the ball long.
And as for O’Neill’s near nervous breakdown in the second half: he took the two holding players off only after the Danes had taken the lead…and only then was when Eriksen suddenly found all that space. And it was the inspirational tactics of their Norwegian manager that had helped the Danes weather that early storm.
Anyway Paul, I will sign off. I just wish football managers would not take us for duffers with their base manoeuvres to jockey themselves into positions for jobs. How more honest it would have been for Chris to say “I cannot give my allegiance to my country just yet…for I am waiting on a possible mega pay day coming my way”.
My bovine faeces detector was on “high alert” when he came out with all that cobblers about looking after his backroom team.
Pass the sick bag, Alice.
And WalesOnline …please get some reporters who have the testicular fortitude to ask the tough questions and call B.S. just what it is.