GIVEN the opportunity to work with players on a daily basis, Mark Hughes can enhance the burgeoning reputation that he has established with Wales and become “a fantastic Premiership manager”, according to the man being mooted as his long-term replacement at international level.
Gary Speed, the Wales captain, has just turned 35, the age at which Hughes, yesterday introduced as the manager of Blackburn Rovers, first took charge of their country.
The Bolton Wanderers midfield player, signed from Newcastle United for £750,000 in July, has not missed a Barclays Premiership match for 1½ years and has no intention of winding down his playing career just yet, although he did admit that managing Wales would be the ultimate honour when he does retire.
“The timing would have to be right, though,” he said. Speed is highly critical of Wales’s performances in their opening two World Cup qualifying games — against Azerbaijan, when he scored in a 1-1 draw, and the 2-2 draw at home to Northern Ireland — and called on his team-mates to give Hughes a more appropriate send-off in next month’s group six matches with England and Poland.
“Everyone’s looking forward to playing at Old Trafford, it should be a great night, a great atmosphere, but what’s important is we get points from these next two games,” he said.
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“We’ve got to fancy our chances against England, but if we don’t improve on our last two performances, we won’t get anything. That’s obvious. I don’t think we worked as a team, as we have in the past, and that’s our strength.”
Two seasons ago, Wales won their opening four qualifying matches for the 2004 European Championship and now have arguably their finest squad. Speed is sad that Hughes will be leaving his post, but he said: “He’ll do fantastically well in the Premiership. What he’s done with Wales is admirable because you don’t get that much time to work with players to sort things out.
“Given the opportunity to work with players day-to-day, considering the attention to detail he brings to the Wales job, he could really take Blackburn on a level. I don’t think you can do both jobs at the same time, but while he’s a good manager and a good friend, he doesn’t owe Wales a thing. For 20 years as a player and five years as manager, he has been devoted to Wales, so the time has come when he is entitled to say ‘ This is what I want to do next’.”
Wales could yet ask Speed, at present taking his Uefa A coaching badge, to start learning the ropes by assisting the new coach on a part-time basis. “I’m a proud Welshman and if I decided to go into coaching, leading your country would be the ultimate honour,” Speed said.
That new coach could be Sir Bobby Robson, and Speed did not see the end of the former England manager’s reign at St James’ Park coming when he left for Bolton in the summer. “Not at all,” he said. “Sir Bobby is not only a top manager but a fantastic man.” On the back of two games in which they have beaten Liverpool and drawn with Manchester United — after taking the lead in the 90th minute — Bolton are third in the Premiership as tomorrow they attempt to end Arsenal’s 45-game unbeaten run in the league.