Fri. Sep 6th, 2024
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Robert Page oversees Wales training
Robert Page was previously in charge of Wales’ Under-21 side

Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney says he has held a “positive, productive discussion” with national team manager Robert Page.

Page had been under pressure but the 2-1 win over Croatia means victory in their final two games would see Wales qualifying for Euro 2024.

Mooney said a newspaper story which suggested the FAW had planned to replace Page with former Republic of Ireland international Roy Keane was “complete baloney.”

“Rob’s done a terrific job in the transition and enjoys the full support of the FAW,” Mooney told S4C’s Sgorio.

“I think he’s doing a terrific job and we’re going into the final window with a real fighting chance now of qualifying automatically for our third Euros out of three.

“When I saw the players supporting the manager, that’s what I wanted to see. You can see they are a really united group.”

Ahead of the Croatia game in Cardiff, with Wales fourth in Group D, Mooney had said the governing body would not make any “knee-jerk” decisions over Page’s future but added the team had to win games.

Wales captain Ben Davies before the Croatia game described comments about Page by Mooney as “not helpful” while Page himself was clearly emotional before and after the game when addressing questions about his future.

Speaking immediately after the Croatia win, Page revealed he had not spoken to Mooney “for about five weeks”, although did say he had received a good luck text message on the afternoon of the game.

The chief executive has now said he did not want to ‘make things worse’ by speaking to players and manager in the build-up to the game.

Mooney revealed he and FAW president Steve Williams had met with Page in Wrexham following the recent internationals.

“Rob made a few points, we made a few points and we agreed everything together,” Mooney added.

“It was a very positive, productive discussion as it should be. We’re all trying to do the same thing – we want Wales to win and be successful, to grow and get better.

“It’s just how things were done and that tabloid story was really unhelpful for us.

“It was complete baloney that was in the story. It was a shock to us, we were completely flat footed as much as anybody.

“You just wanted everyone to focus on getting the performance and the result they got against Croatia.”

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