COLEMAN : ' NEVER A CHANCE OF BALE PLAYING '

Wales boss Chris Coleman insisted he was never able to call on Gareth Bale to stop his side losing in Macedonia – even though he named him on the bench.

And he claimed he was ready to face the flak for what appeared to be ignoring the most expensive player on the planet after revealing his place as a substitute was a scare tactic.

Supporters were left mystified as new Real Madrid ‘Galactico’ Bale stayed on the sidelines as Wales were unable to build upon Aaron Ramsey’s first half equaliser from the spot following Ivan Trickovski’s 21st minute opener.

But, after Aleksandar Trajkovski’s strike 10 minutes from time handed Macedonia victory, Coleman revealed Bale was never fit enough to feature.

He said: “He was too far off. If there was any chance he’d have come on the pitch.

“It would have been ideal in the last 20 minutes but he wasn’t fit.

“We were never ready to use him. If you’re the opposition manager and you see Bale on the bench, that can change your mentality.

“You think I would have not used him if he was fit? I don’t mind what other people think.

“What I look at is the opposition. If I’m the opposition manager and Bale is on the bench, maybe it would affect his thinking.”

It didn’t work as Wales blew the chance of going for a third win of the campaign and lost the chance of a deserved point at the death.

And it rounded off an embarrassing few days for Coleman after his passport blunder, on which he said: “You’d see what we do when we go away.

“It's next to nothing. All the work had been done. You make of it what you want.”

One word


CLUELESS

I think this is being a little overused as a stick to beat coleman with. If Bale wasnt going to play then its better hed be on the bench than not. Its not like we had anyone of any note to replace bale with and this keeping a match winner out of the squad.

The mere fact he was on the bench may have stopped Macedonia making attacking substitutions knowing that we could unleash bale at any time. As it transpired we were so crap they didnt have to make the decision about leaving their defence bare to attack,

The topic should be why we played crap - not gareth bale who wasnt fit enough to play so didnt. Its a non story.

The headline should be "This is the beginning of the end of Bale turning up for Wales"

They are not going to want their latest 100 million Euro asset into the hands of this crew.
Unnecessarily flying him from Cardiff to a developing country to scare the opposition from the bench is laughable.

Coleman has to go before the next campaign. He needs to join the long list of ex players who find out they haven't got what it takes to be a football manager. Training regimes and technology have changed drastically and I bet they are not a patch on anything Malky or Laudraup can call upon.

They just aren't delivering when you consider the talent available to him.

I cant imagine that tactic would make much difference with Bale. If it was Chile playing and Gary was injured, having him on the bench would be like having a 12th man. One glance from Gary and he could have their defence retreating to the dressing room. He is about the only player it would work with mind.

He has been saying bale was unlikely to play all week, due to a injury.
Wants to keep a good relationship with clubs and as this was a game we did bot need to win I gess he did the right thing.
If he did play and got injured again before he even kicks a ball for real! It would be harder to have him released for the start of the next tournament.
Makes sence to me to use thes games as competitive training games as to see what he can do next time.

f*cking pathetic just like his out of date bosses we are a laughing stock of international football

If I was Bale I'd just call it a day and only play for Real Madrid. It's easy for him to give a reason as well

'I have decided that I am going to retire. Due to what I believe is an incompetent FAW and the lack of faith I have in the current management team I feel it would be wrong of me to continue wearing the Wales shirt and fulfilling my international duties. As a player who has been fortunate to earn a move to one of the biggest clubs in the world, if not the biggest, I have decided it's in my best interests and the countries best interests in terms of pride to put all my efforts into doing well for Real Madrid. I hope you understand'.

Either way, there will be a backlash and change will be forced through or Bale stops wearing the shirt, the international team stops getting carried and Coleman gets sacked and they have to buck up their ideas to come back.

Bale is in a position where he is so talented he can force their hand. It would be a disaster for the FAW if he quit because of them.

I can't believe our national team is resorting to trying to bluff teams like Macedonia into changing tactics

We are in big big trouble as a national team lets be fair we should be beating these by 2 goals with the players we have. It's not the players last night it was the negative tactics and outdated style of play we have adopted , players played out of there natural position and low on confidence due to the manager showing a complete and utter total lack of respect to anybody else in the team apart from Gareth bale , to be honest even he look embarressed on the bench last night .

Admitting to tactics like this is really bad for morale . If I was a player who took the time and made the effort to travel out there and train all week just to be dropped for a person who was injured and couldn't play I would be fuming . It sends out a very bad message that the manager has no faith in other players in the squad IMO .
If this is the best our manager can come up with tactically then we've lost all hope for the future

I honestly believe coleman has the best squad of players that wales has had for many many years and he is going to waste it all ,this is a Squad of youngsters who can take wales to a major championship we just need the manager to go with them .

You lot need to get your head out of your f*cking ass.
How can u blame him when he had to take the job on under difficult reasons with a squad that has mainly champ players .
Scotland have a better pool of players and are allso shit.
England are rhe same.
So wake up ffs and realise wales is still a rugby principality.

You lot need to get your head out of your f*cking ass.
How can u blame him when he had to take the job on under difficult reasons with a squad that has mainly champ players .
Scotland have a better pool of players and are allso shit.
England are rhe same.
So wake up ffs and realise wales is still a rugby principality.

why put a player on the bench who was NEVER going to start??????

Maybe he was going to start but decided not to
Maybe just put on the benxh to keep his feet on the floor.
Truth is he has been saying all week its doughtful he will start so why are u all bitching ffs.
Its because the coaching staff are jack's and u dont like it.
Wales as a football nation is allways going to struggle because rugby's the main sport outside swansea carsiff and newport.
Get over it ffs
Ww aint got the players.

Maybe he was going to start but decided not to
Maybe just put on the benxh to keep his feet on the floor.
Truth is he has been saying all week its doughtful he will start so why are u all bitching ffs.
Its because the coaching staff are jack's and u dont like it.
Wales as a football nation is allways going to struggle because rugby's the main sport outside swansea carsiff and newport.
Get over it ffs
Ww aint got the players.

You really are special arent you.

The news out in Skopje was that the field was too hard for him so he wasn't going to risk playing , he wont be starting next week but may or may not have a 20 minute run out

Weird.

Maybe he was going to start but decided not to
Maybe just put on the benxh to keep his feet on the floor.
Truth is he has been saying all week its doughtful he will start so why are u all bitching ffs.
Its because the coaching staff are jack's and u dont like it.
Wales as a football nation is allways going to struggle because rugby's the main sport outside swansea carsiff and newport.
Get over it ffs
Ww aint got the players.

You really are a clown.....

If you think he is doing a good job just because he is a jack, then we are shagged...

Couldn't give a fcuk about him being a jack. 90% of Cardiff fans couldn't give a fcuk either.... Hartsons inclusion in the management team was baffling due to his lack of experience and I never considered John as the games great thinkers. Our recent record shows it wasn't a stroke of genius by Coleman. Probably the good ole nice to have a Welsh speaking manager to keep S4C and the language fascists happy.

You get about 4 times the attendance of the Osprey & scarlets together, we probably get 6 times than the blues and the Dragons combined. International rugby is a plastics piss up fest.

The truth is as we both got premiere league football, internationals pale into insignificance. In the good days we were both shit.

IMO Coleman may be worse for Wales than Gould. I would prefer a non Welsh manager, stops this crap

How anyone can defend Coleman is beyond me.

How anyone can defend Coleman is beyond me.

They can't, they can just blame others.

Reality, he isn't good enough.