Chris Coleman appointed as new manager of Wales

Chris Coleman has been appointed the new manager of the Welsh national team. An odd fact associated to the appointment of Chris Coleman is that in March 1994 Wales played Norway in an friendly at Ninian Park. It was the solitary game in John Toshack’s first spell as Welsh manager (a spell that lasted for [...]

Chris Coleman has been appointed the new manager of the Welsh national team.

An odd fact associated to the appointment of Chris Coleman is that in March 1994 Wales played Norway in an friendly at Ninian Park. It was the solitary game in John Toshack’s first spell as Welsh manager (a spell that lasted for little more than a few weeks). The team that day featured Chris Coleman, Neville Southall, Mark Hughes and Gary Speed. There can’t be many matches that involve five people who would one day go on to manage their country (in John Toshack’s case, for the second time, while Neville Southall managed Wales against Denmark in a caretaker role during the late 90s).

Three future Welsh managers in the starting line-up, one managing from the bench

Four future Welsh managers in the starting line-up (Southall, Speed, Hughes and Coleman), one managing from the bench

I have no idea whether Chris Coleman is a good appointment or not. I can’t say I was particularly excited by Gary Speed when he was first appointed to the post (I was shown to be spectacularly wrong on that score). However, Coleman has a remarkably tough act to follow in Gary Speed as the form of the Welsh national side throughout 2011 was nothing short of sensational. Despite seeing Wales win a good number of games in the past I’ve never seen them brush aside teams of the quality of Montenegro, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Norway. It really did feel like the start of something special. I hope Chris can continue that good work.

Hat tip to Ian Hamer for pointing out that Neville Southall managed Wales in a caretaker capacity against Denmark in 1999.