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.
Comments