WALES WALES

Marking Time!

By Mike Hughes

THE LAST OF THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS

Until now I have always thought that the life of an international manager was not the toughest job in the world. Plenty of gaps between those tense 95-minute occasions; scouting trips all paid for (I'd like to think) and generally judged over a much longer period than club managers. Now obviously those thoughts were all a bit tongue in cheek but the media treatment of Mark Hughes in recent weeks has made me rethink. The problem with Welsh football in the past hasn't really been any of the things usually wheeled out to mitigate our admittedly poor record over the years. The problem has never been that this or that manager has built a good, bad or indifferent team. Nor has it ever been our 'media' status as a small nation and the supposedly associated small number of players who supposedly therefore play at the 'top' level whatever that may be. No, the real problem has been that manager after manager has simply built a team. Nothing more and nothing less. Behind those teams - even the good ones - has lain precisely nothing. No Under-21 team; no youth development; no publicity and branding; no national league structures; no schools of excellence. Just - nothing. Now I don't mean to demean the tremendous work done by many individuals (managers or otherwise) over the years, our own Cliff Sear being a prime example, and nor am I saying that those failings have only started to be addressed in the Mark Hughes era, but, I do find it somewhat ironic that the first manager in Welsh history to really tackle the whole problem of Welsh football finds himself under the sort of media attack that would normally be reserved for the likes of the England manager. 

NEW FACE IN HELL

In the eyes of the media there has to be a scapegoat of course and every success story has to be matched by a 'tale of woe'. Looks like it's our turn.  For the life of me the speculation surrounding Mark Hughes' status as Welsh manager seems ludicrous and badly judged. The task is as hard as any in football. The progress has been steady in every single respect and yet every day we read about 'increasing pressure on…' and so on. Much as I would like to see us win the odd game, I really cannot see any benefit in losing a manager that everyone respects on every level. I'm not even going to speculate on who might be in the frame as a replacement. If you read any of that rubbish, please bin it. Better still, write in and complain and don't buy it again. You want some context for the ludicrous attitude of the media - fine. Imagine if media attacks had started on Alex Ferguson nine games into his first season as manager after three pre-season friendlies. Imagine Crewe sacking their manager every time they've been relegated in the past fifteen years. If you supported Man United or Crewe then those scenarios don't bear thinking about, do they - because you know what the alternative scenario turned out to be. I don't know for certain what the alternative scenario would be, but I do know this. Not enough has changed at the Welsh FA. There are still strong forces within who would still consider a part-time manager and scrap the Under-21s if it saved a bit of money. Don't give them the chance. So, in isolation, the results against Armenia and Norway are disappointing to say the least. In context I'd say things are still moving in the right direction and, as I said in an earlier column, watch the Under-21s as a barometer of where things might be going in the future. Neither team is doing particularly well at the moment but if judging the full international team is like judging Crewe at the start of Dario's reign, then judging the Under- 21s on results at this stage would be naïve in the extreme. 

THE MESSAGE

Sorry for the lack of even one comic interlude this month (how could anything be more comic than the look on Dutch and German faces in recent days?). This time out I am seriously narked by the appalling attitude of the media toward our national manager. Get off your bottoms and get behind your national manager. Defend him at all cost. Three to five years down the line your faith will be repaid.