I had no intention of writing about football until after the Nations League has got underway in the Autumn, but I cannot let Cymru’s two atrocious performances earlier this month in friendly internationals against Gibraltar and Slovakia pass without comment.

Many fans have been agitating for the sacking of Rob Page since Cymru’s deeply disappointing showing in the 2022 World Cup, and that pressure only increased after the penalty shoot-out defeat by Poland meant Cymru missed out on the Euro 2024 tournament now taking place in Germany, but I’ve consistently opposed those siren calls for a number of reasons. First and foremost because he was the first manager to actually get us to a World Cup tournament after 64 never-ending years of heartbreak, and that historic achievement alone meant he deserved more leeway, understanding, scope and forbearance than any of his predecessors. In addition, as interim manager during Ryan Giggs’ suspension he had secured Nations League A qualification for the first time and taken Cymru to the last 16 of the Euro 2020 finals – adding up to a record of sustained success unmatched in the annals of Welsh football. On top of that he clearly has a great rapport with the players, he knows the squad inside out having previously been U21 manager since 2017, he has an unrivalled knowledge and experience of the demands of the international game, and he has proved over and over again that he possesses exceptional tactical awareness and motivational abilities.

Moreover, in 2022 he signed a four-year contract until 2026 with the FAW which would have to be honoured if he were to be sacked – money the FAW can ill afford to chuck away. And, in any case, who the hell would replace him? Those clamouring for the axe to be wielded have failed to come up with a single viable or feasible candidate who might want the job. No, no, no – the perfectionists demanding Page’s head on a platter, just because Cymru’s 148-year-old default pattern of regular defeats unsurprisingly returned post-Bale, are merely displaying three familiar 21st century failings: ignorance of the past, misunderstanding of the present and spoilt-brat over-entitlement.

Yet, despite all this, I am now prepared to put this statement in writing: SACK ROB PAGE!

Why? One word will suffice as an answer: Gibraltar.

Since Gibraltar was accepted into UEFA in 2013 and then FIFA in 2016, the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsular with the population of Pontypridd (35,000) has played 88 international matches (including the Cymru game on June 6th), winning eight, drawing 10 and losing 70. Those eight wins have come against other minnows Andorra, Armenia, Latvia, Liechtenstein (three times), Malta and San Marino, while the wretched 0-0 draw with Cymru this month places us on an inglorious list that includes some of the same minnows – Andorra, Liechtenstein (twice) and San Marino – plus Estonia, Faroe Islands, Grenada, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The only consolation here is that the presence of ‘proper’ opponents like Estonia, Bulgaria and Slovakia means that we are not alone in our embarrassment.

Gibraltar’s 0-0 draw with Cymru at Estadio Algarve in Portugal brought to an end a 13-game losing streak (including a 4-0 defeat at Wrecsam last year in the countries’ inaugural meeting) in which they conceded 50 goals and scored none. Their current FIFA ranking is 203rd out of 210 while Cymru are 29th. This is therefore Cymru’s worst result in terms of the ranking gap since FIFA introduced rankings in 1992, and probably the worst result of all time.

But that isn’t the reason why I believe Page must now go. Gibraltar are a well organised, tight-knit team, drawn mainly from the professional Lincoln Red Imps club that are perennial winners of the 11-club Gibraltar National League (all 11 share the Victoria Stadium on the Rock). By getting every man behind the ball and defending in swarms they are capable of making life difficult for any opponent if their luck holds and the opposition is too complacent or half-hearted, which seems to be what happened against Cymru. So, in itself the humiliating draw is no big deal. But what is utterly unforgiveable is the team Page selected to play Gibraltar.

Not one single footballer from the Welsh pyramid was in Page’s 25-man squad to face Gibraltar and Slovakia – even after three late withdrawals. There’s nothing new about this. Cymru is the only international team in the world that never selects anyone from its own domestic leagues (it has actually happened just once, back in 1997 when Bobby Gould picked Gary Lloyd of Barry Town in his squad to face Belgium). Page scoured the English pyramid to find room for a motley collection of callow youths from reserve teams, potential prospects out on loan to lower league clubs, workaday pros not of international quality and old stagers he already knows everything about. His final 22-man squad contained 13 who only qualify as Welsh through a parent or grandparent, 13 plying their trade in England’s second tier, four in the third tier, and a mere five with a top tier club (two of them as apprentices and one in Scotland). Unsurprisingly, that hotch-potch lacked the talent, the competitive drive and the sheer will to do justice to the Cymru shirt.

If Rob Page will not pick even one player from the Cymru Premier to be involved in a friendly match against the likes of Gibraltar then that means there will never be any circumstances when he would endorse, support and boost our domestic game by testing and giving a chance to some of the many promising Welsh players in our domestic leagues. This is just unacceptable. What harm would it do? His blinkered, Anglocentric, anti-Welsh policy is the very opposite of what is needed. We need the domestic game and the national side to be umbilically connected; we need the Cymru manager to lead from the front and make it a priority to build our underfunded, underappreciated, ignored, traduced, belittled and besieged soccer pyramid; we need to create a sustainable long-term future for Welsh football that doesn’t rely on ancestry.com and failed mercenaries to rustle up a team, but on the football clubs of Wales. Rob Page is most certainly not the man to do any of that. Has he ever attended a Cymru Premier fixture? Is he even aware it exists? Would he know that Cymru has recent experience against Gibraltar when The New Saints beat Lincoln Red Imps 3-2 on aggregate (it should have been more) in the 2nd Round of the Europa League in 2018/19? I doubt it.

To take the current TNS squad as an example, the Cymru Premier champions have a stock of professional Welsh players, such as Ben Clark, Danny Davies, Leo Smith, Dan Williams, Gwion Dafydd. Sion Bradley and Josh Lock, who could only enhance, enliven and vary the national side. In addition, being part of the Cymru set-up would only improve those players and thus strengthen TNS in their vital European campaigns. And likewise there are plenty of semi-pro players in the other Cymru Premier clubs as well as the tier two Cymru North and Cymru South who would also benefit hugely from links to the Cymru team – but not one ever gets picked even for the under-21s. This is a shocking, self-destructive and stupid negation of the very point of having a national side and a national league and the time is long, long overdue for the FAW to step in and change the dismal reality imposed at the behest of the English clubs squatting in Wales, their allies in the British media and their Brit-brainwashed stooges. Page has had his chance, but his time is up. Cymru is an independent football nation not a bargain basement, dragon-washed annexe of England; we deserve a leader* with the brains to grasp the unique privilege and preciousness of that independent status and the courage to free us from the colonial shackles that guarantee we remain stunted, lame losers.
UPDATE: Rob Page sacked 21st June!

*NOTE
If I were FAW Chief Executive Noel Mooney I would offer the job to Andy Morrison, Scotsman, honorary Welshman, two-time winner of the Cymru Premier when Connah’s Quay Nomads boss and currently head coach of the Sri Lanka national team.