“They are fully behind Rob Page”

Chris Mepham insists the Wales squad are wholly behind Rob Page after a terrible four days left their hopes of qualifying automatically for Euro 2024 dangling by a thread.

Wales were thumped 4-2 at home by Armenia, an embarrassing defeat, before they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Turkey. The latter could have been by a bigger margin, too, with the hosts having two goals ruled out and Danny Ward saving a penalty out in Samsun.


Wales are left licking their wounds after what has been a painful eight months or so for both the team and its supporters. Since they qualified for the World Cup with that wonderful 1-0 victory over Ukraine, Wales have played 12 games but won once, scored only 10 goals but conceded 22, and kept just one clean sheet.



The two defeats in this most recent camp has seen the pressure ratchet up on manager Page, with supporters growing weary at the apparent lack of progression since the big retirements of Gareth Bale and Joe Allen, among others.

But when asked if the squad were fully behind Page, Mepham said: "100 per cent. He's someone I really admire. He brought me into the Wales set-up in the first place and I'll make sure I give everything I can for him.

I'm sure Mepham is behind Page, as lets face it, he wouldn't get too many caps under any other manager... It sums up our lack of defensive quality when he is a first choice international player. We haven't got a natural successor to Ashley Williams both as a no nonsense defender and a leader on the pitch. Page needs to look at the alternatives and find a formation that fits the players he has and not keep trying to put square pegs in round holes. Wilson, James, Ramsey, Johnson, Rodon, Roberts and even Moore on his day are all decent players and Cooper & Colwill have the potential to make the step up but the squad isn't balanced and perhaps its time to try and find a few more with welsh grandparents etc to fill in the gaping holes at the back.