Is It Time For Page To Go?

Is It Time For Page To Go? Not Just Yet!

Stephen (@stephenjbaker) explores why he thinks this just isn’t the minute to be removing Rob Page.

Now I’m not saying everything is perfect with the Welsh National side at the moment. What I’m saying is that it’s not the time to sack Page. These are my reasons for keeping with Rob Page, at least till the end of the qualifiers.

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Lots of people are calling for him to be sacked but I have yet to hear anybody say who could replace him! Let’s face it, we are never going to get a Pep or Klopp. We simply can’t afford a manager of that quality. Is there a top coach that’s available and that we can afford? The only person I can think of is Osian Roberts, but would he want the job? I don’t think he would.

Remember it’s not over yet, we are still in the race to qualify for the EUROS. Thankfully we are almost certain to have a playoff place. Think of the times we would dream of having a playoff place? Don’t get me wrong, if we fail to qualify then I would be calling for him to go. But it’s not over till it’s over.

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Having followed Cymru since the 80’s (going to the games since early 90’s) these are our ‘Salad Days’. We would call for the manager to go after qualifying being over after three or four games. Now we are calling for his removal because we didn’t have the best of World Cups, and likely relying on a playoff place. Times have changed!

Remember I’m not saying he’s doing a great job. We seem to have two Plan A’s and no Plan B for when either of those two Plan A’s go wrong. But like I said above, who is the alternative? 

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I think the main problem we have at the moment, is that we need to replace Bale and Allen. Losing one of those players would be difficult for any team. And let’s be honest, can we ever replace Gareth Bale? If we replace Page now, this problem will still be there.

So will the problem of our players now getting enough game time for their clubs. We could put out a Starting XI of players who are on the bench for their teams or not even on the bench. It’s a big enough step from the Championship to International football, never mind from not playing to International football. These problems are out of the manager’s control.

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To sum up, I think that Rob Page deserves to have a chance to get us to the EUROS. He has gotten us to a EUROS and World Cup after all. And we have a playoff to fall back on.

Again, if someone could give me a replacement who could solve all these problems and still get us automatic qualification, I’ll be more than happy to see him on the touchline.  But one thing we all need to do, no matter who we want as manger, is to get behind the boys like never before.

Social media (first) photo of Rob Page courtesy of Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0,