It’s the start of a new era for Welsh football as new boss Craig Bellamy takes charge for his first two games against Turkey and Montenegro. This is his first chance to get his teeth stuck into the job, and could be the first opportunities to get the World Cup qualification campaign under way.
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00:00Trust in the people I have with us, trust in the players, trust in the work we've done
00:07through the week, that allows everything to stay reasonably quite calm and hopefully stay
00:13in control of a lot of situations.
00:15It's the start of a new era for Welsh football, a new boss and a new hope for the men's national
00:21team, as a World Cup looms in the not-so-distant future.
00:24It's been a difficult year for the side with some embarrassing losses and a failure to
00:29qualify for the Euros earlier on this year, so new boss Craig Bellamy will be hoping to
00:34turn things around in his first games in charge.
00:37With the Nations League now a legitimate path to the World Cup, the upcoming games against
00:41Turkey in Cardiff and then away to Montenegro are a real chance for the new manager to make
00:46a mark, and he says he's raring to go.
00:49I've been waiting for this, it's what I wanted, so normal to feel nerves, I hope I do, because
01:00that gives me a sense of the importance and what it means.
01:05I feel I'll be, if I'm not feeling nervous, I'll probably be more concerned with that.
01:10There have been a few players pull out from the squad, most notably Danny James and David
01:14Brooks, but it's meant that a good few young players could shine if they're given a chance
01:18on the pitch over the next week.
01:21Plus former Cardiff City striker Mark Harris is in blistering form for Oxford United, scoring
01:26in each of the opening four games of the championship season so far.
01:30And, besides the likes of Kiefer Moore, Wales have been looking for that proper number nine,
01:35so Harris could be the man we need up front.
01:38Turkey are a team Wales know all too well, and both sides have taken some pretty big
01:42scalps over the other in recent years, so with Turkey the current form team, Wales will
01:47know how important it is to start well against them, and hope for a result which could set
01:52us firmly on the path towards the World Cup in Canada, the USA and Mexico in 2026.