Wales sack Rob Page as manager
Rob Page’s tenure as Wales manager will be remembered for a number of reasons, our first World Cup since 1958 will be his crowning glory, but towards the back end of his time at the helm, some embarrassing defeats will definitely stay on people’s minds. He wasn’t the most decorated manager when he took over, but the Rob Page era was a rollercoaster.
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00:00Cast your minds back to 2020. The world was in the midst of a global pandemic. We were
00:19all stuck inside and the Football Association of Wales was having a nightmare as then manager
00:23Ryan Giggs had been charged with assault. None of us knew what would happen for Welsh
00:29football and how the Welsh FA would deal with the situation. The plan was to steady
00:33the ship, get a temporary manager who wouldn't change things up too much, keep the squad
00:37in order and keep one eye on the postponed European Championships. Upstepped assistant
00:43manager Rob Page, a relative unknown in the world of football, he made 41 appearances
00:48for Wales in the late 90s and into the early noughties. Managed Port Vale and Northampton
00:53Town for a few years before joining the Welsh FA as the under-21s manager and then a few
00:58years later as an assistant manager to the first team. When he started the job it was
01:03in a temporary capacity but winning a few Nations League matches and putting together
01:07a decent Wales side going into the European Championships, he stayed in the role throughout
01:11the tournament, making it out of the group stage before being knocked out by semi-finalist
01:16Denmark 4-0 in the first round. His performance at the competition landed him the job on a
01:21permanent basis and then pressed onto the biggest qualifying campaign Wales might have
01:26ever had as he took the country to the first World Cup since 1958. This remarkable achievement
01:32is more than any Wales manager has ever accomplished as Wales qualified on a bit of a technicality
01:36in the previous World Cup in the 50s.
01:39What's important for us now is that we throw full focus on winning games of football. You
01:43know, we can't have any distractions while we're out there. We have our beliefs, we have
01:48what we stand for and we won't veer away from that. But when we're out there, it's full
01:53focus on winning games of football.
01:55The World Cup would have been the highlight of his career, as it would have been the highlight
01:58of the squad's playing careers and the fans' time following Wales. When we were in Qatar
02:03though, it was a relatively poor showing, gaining a draw against the USA with a late
02:06penalty before losses to Iran and England left us bottom of the group.
02:12For many fans, just taking us to a World Cup was enough to give Rob Page the benefit of
02:16the doubt and he continued hoping to qualify for the Euros this year.
02:21And as we all know, that didn't happen and the whole campaign almost sums up Page's side
02:25in charge of the national side. An embarrassing, humbling defeat to Armenia at home was followed
02:30by a memorable win against World Cup finalist Croatia. Ups and downs, big wins and heavy
02:35losses. Rob Page was a manager of the people. He wasn't flashy, he didn't have decades
02:40of experience managing at the top level and he didn't play any kind of revolutionary football.
02:45But for a time, he was a hero for many.
02:48As so many fans have said online since he's been sacked, they aren't going to celebrate
02:52him leaving. But his time was most certainly up.