2024 has been a strange year in Wales’ football history. Starting with the future unknown for boss Rob Page who after failing to qualify for the European Championships was out of a job. Then in came Craig Bellamy and since, things have looked up for the nations team.
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00:00James, looking at Welsh football as a nation in 2024 and obviously a bit of a strange situation
00:09at the start of the year and into the middle of the year as well when obviously, you know,
00:13Rob Page, a real reluctancy after the World Cup campaign and then, you know, you come
00:19in and you really hope and expect to qualify for the European Championships and it didn't
00:23go his way or the nation's way in that aspect. A real strange qualifying campaign, obviously
00:29that win against Croatia and then, you know, losses against sides that they certainly shouldn't
00:34have been losing to. You know, we mentioned it before, it was a real strange position
00:39for Welsh football fans to be in. You were sort of looking at the ageing side as well
00:45and young players who weren't getting a call-up who probably did deserve it and then a massive
00:49change of tides went on. Craig Bellamy comes in and straight away he sort of, you know,
00:55expresses how much he cares for Welsh football and how high the standards need to be set
01:00and the expectations to go and qualify for major tournaments. What's it been like, the
01:06transition throughout the year of, you know, obviously coming off the back of Rob Page's
01:10tenure and then actually a breath of fresh air with Craig Bellamy, obviously a former
01:15player as well, has made a massive impact so far and a real, you know, fantastic 2024
01:22in terms of Bellamy's time so far?
01:26Yeah, it was a turnaround but I'm not sure we expected it to be where it is now. I'm
01:31not saying obviously we've, you know, won every game 4-0 but guys, it's a completely
01:35different side than we saw at the start of the year. Rob Page did so much for Welsh football,
01:40the World Cup and everything like that but Craig Bellamy, it's just, it's been a different
01:45game with him already. It's, you know, he's had six games so far, hasn't lost a game,
01:51three wins, three draws, looked really difficult to beat. Like, we have two draws against Turkey
01:56who are a decent unformed side at the moment but yeah, it's just been, it's kind of unexpected.
02:02I think a lot of Welsh fans were quite excited about Craig Bellamy and just, you know, it's
02:07Craig Bellamy, he's like one of those characters that everyone kind of knows in football and
02:11especially all Welsh fans kind of know in football but he's, yeah, he's a good football
02:17manager as well as a good character and a good footballer but he clearly knows what
02:22he's doing. He said all the right things, he did it from his first press conference
02:25as well and I remember coming out of there, speaking to a few of the other reporters,
02:30we were all saying, yeah, he knows what he's talking about, he's saying the right things
02:33at least at this point, see how it goes. But yeah, he's brought that forward with performances
02:39as well and the team looked like they want to play for him. He's spoken so highly about
02:44all the players, the young players coming through, the prospects, you know, hopefully
02:49a World Cup kind of thing. He's saying the right things and he's backing it up and I
02:54think that we've got a lot more to come from Welsh football in 2025.