Jack Butty returns from the salty south west, a battered sea drenched wordsmith with more to say on the Swansea Way and how it could become a national focus over the next four years.

Defeat was tough to take. Made worse by a half-hearted performance against the old enemy, along with a footballing lesson to boot. Wales had qualified for the first time since 1958 as one of the 32 best teams on the planet. And the hope for many was that we could clear the group stage which would surely qualify as success. After that, going into the knockout stages Wales could take their chances and try to spring some surprises.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

There are undoubtedly issues and factors to temper that sinking feeling of dismay. It’s clear to most fans that this was an ageing squad that included Bale and Ramsey, as well as Wayne Hennessey (35) and Chris Gunter (33), with some carried by the whiff of old glories. Joe Allen looked like he needed more recovery time and fitness. And our team tactics and selection simply didn’t work.It is Important to recognise too that the World Cup throws up teams who are expected to do well but don’t — look at Germany and Denmark. At the same time there are the newcomers who surprisingly perform extremely well — Morocco and the USA. So, we could put it down to a bad World Cup for Wales but, like Germany and Denmark, it’s not unreasonable to expect we aim to do better in the future by rebuilding now.

And rebuilding is what we must aim for with the European Championship qualifying rounds coming up fast. What does rebuilding mean? For me it must be a root and branch review of coaching, the style of football we want to play and that this style of play can be adopted by Welsh clubs and teams at grassroots level. And what better time to do this with a well resourced FAW. Financially the FAW is in a very strong position. Having made a loss for the financial year up to July 2020, World Cup qualification added more than £8 million to the coffers and it is on track to grow revenues of £26 million by 2026.

Making changes for the future must hinge on appointing a coach who wants to play a style of football that suits Welsh football and is given the time and support to implement this. Thinking outside the box I’d like to see someone like Marcelo Bielsa playing a football style, along the lines of Swansea-based possession and passing on the ground.

Could we extend this to Cardiff, Newport and Wrexham? It wouldn’t be easy to persuade clubs to change to a national style of playing football but wouldn’t it be worth trying? It reasonable to me that the FAW would be encouraging Welsh clubs to follow elements of a style of football that is adopted by the national team. Certainly, this should be easier at grassroots level with the FAW investing £4 million into improving this.

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Artwork by Swansea Independent

Bluswan added 14:15 - Dec 1 Completely agree. Wales have reached a pivotal and critical point in time and the FAW must show proper leadership by carrying out a forensic analysis of the recent past, by identifying the mistakes made, learning also from what we gave done well, and establishing a firm plan for the next 5-10yrs which covers all of welsh football from under 8’s through to the national team. We have been very fortunate to have had great and challenging coaches in the past like Toshack, Speed, Coleman and the understated Osian Roberts. In recent years numerically we have had our greatest generation of players with Bale, Ramsey and Allen with Williams never been replaced at the back and Davies won’t be around for too many more years. We can’t rely on these now and a far less optimistic future is going to hit us in the face if the FAW don’t act now. Failure to grasp the initiative will undoubtably mean that we will muddle through the next couple of years, and find ourselves back into the also-rans of European and world football, alongside the likes of Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Rep Ire. Big decisions have to be made now. Far sharper brains need to be brought back into the fold - like Osian Roberts. As it stands Rob Page seems a nice chap but his record is increasingly and worryingly poor and it was of little surprise to me and many others in the very poor performances given on the pitch in Qatar. In fact it’s been embarrassing. The FAW have only just given Page a 4yr deal - an emotional gesture if there was ever one because it wasn’t based up any objective analysis of his tactical performance and capacity to lead and drive a togetherness on the pitch. What’s the betting that the FAW don’t act and complacently do some minor tweaking and ignore the big danger signs that are currently flashing for Welsh football? My first Wales match was in 1964 but I hadn’t experienced anything like the highs of Euros16 (apart from 1976 and the European Nations Championship match against Jugoslavia at Ninian Park). We can only hope that the FAW don’t throw away the gains of the last 10yrs by being complacently oblivious to what is so obviously needed now - leadership and a firm sense of direction for the next 5-10yrs

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