00:00Well, Charles, looking at the Welsh football set-up once again, 2024 as a calendar year
00:07is coming to a close, as we know, and so it's time that we have a look back at what Wales
00:12have achieved this year. Of course, had a good few international breaks, a new manager
00:19as well, Craig Bellamy coming in. Formerly, he was assistant manager at Burnley under
00:24Vincent Company, but then of course, Company left, he went to Bayern Munich, and now you've
00:28got Bellamy, former Welsh striker himself, he's now taking the reins at the national
00:33team. And so, what has he managed to achieve this year, and what have the players managed
00:38to achieve, and is the future bright for Welsh football? Because of course, they've had some
00:43great success in recent times under the likes of Chris Coleman, Robert Page, but then it's
00:49also fallen off a bit of a cliff after that as well, and so Bellamy's sort of been tasked
00:54with rebuilding as well. So, yeah, where are we at with Welsh football, but what has been
00:58the highlights for this calendar year of 2024?
01:01Yeah, obviously, you mentioned it's been a bit of a strange one with the managerial
01:06change and the shift, and I think the short answer is probably Craig Bellamy's appointment.
01:11I mean, an amazing sort of turnaround he's completed, going unbeaten in his games there,
01:17and there's no Welsh fan or no-one involved with Welsh football now who isn't really,
01:22really looking forward to 2025 and what they can achieve. And then obviously, you have
01:25the World Cup in 2026, and they're going to look to really get there. I mean, the top
01:29of the group in qualification at the moment, you know, in the Nations League as well, so
01:35fantastic for them to see that. And yeah, I mean, if you look back as far as the end
01:40of 2023, obviously came across that incredibly disappointing World Cup campaign, but then
01:46they actually took four points from Croatia, who were one of the, you know, the world's
01:51best at the time. A massive win at home was incredible back end of 2023, and I think they
01:56went into this year sort of thinking, OK, let's give Rob Page another go, let's try
02:01and back him and get it. But then, you know, losses to Turkey, Armenia in there, Slovakia
02:084-0 away from home, drawing with Gibraltar in games that were massive at the time for
02:13qualification to the Euros, so really unfortunate. But, you know, they did have some good moments
02:19under him, but as you say, I think that the transition was so important. Craig Bellamy
02:25came in and he straightaway got to business. His first press conference was incredibly,
02:30you know, stern to the point that this is why I'm here, this is what we're going
02:33to try and achieve, and our standards are going to remain so high. So, yeah, I mean,
02:39to cap off the unbeaten run, 4-1 at home against Iceland, I mean, it's not a massively tough
02:46opponent, but it's really important that you do get these wins, and I think that the
02:50home crowd is also coming back massively for Wales as well. So, really excited for 2025
02:57if you are a Welsh football fan.
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