John Toshack
John Toshack is the manager of the Welsh national team and is hoping to improve their fortunes by qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Toshack himself had an illustrious playing career and is most famous for playing for Liverpool in the 1970’s. Toshack was signed by Bill Shankley from Cardiff City in 1970 and would go on to become a Liverpool legend over the eight years he played on Merseyside.
Toshack’s partnership with Kevin Keegan became the stuff of folklore at Anfield and they were one of the best strike partnerships too have ever played the game. Toshack left Liverpool in 1978 to become Player-Manager at Swansea City
Achievements
Toshack was an immediate success at Swansea City where he led them from the 4th Division to the 1st Division in just four seasons which is and was an incredible achievement by anyone’s standards. In a short space of time Toshack had turned the whole club round and in their first season in the top flight Swansea finished in a good 6th place. John Toshack left The Vetch Field in 1984 and he would embark on a whistle stop tour of European football.
Over the next 20 years he would go on to manage Sporting Lisbon, Real Madrid twice, Real Sociedad three times, Deportivo La Corona, Murcia, Besiktas, Saint Etienne and Catania. These clubs gave Toshack a broad coaching experience and most would agree that managing the most famous club in the world Real Madrid on two occasions is a great honour and it was in Spain where the Welshman would have his most success. Toshack had a brief spell as Wales Manager in 1994 but only lasted 41 days which is why it was seen as a surprise when he was appointed as National coach for the second time in 2004.
Since taking over Toshack has had mixed fortunes in terms of results and is yet to qualify for a major tournament. Toshack has made the decision to persevere with younger players in the hope they will lead the team to a major tournament in the near future. Wales currently lie 3rd in their World Cup qualifying group and face an uphill task to overhaul Germany or Russia who are in front of them.
Job Security
John Toshack looks set to be Wales Manager for the foreseeable future after he signed a contract extension recently to take him through to the end of Euro 2012. That would indicate that he is reasonably safe regardless of whether or not Wales earn qualification to South Africa in 2010. Wales are in with a chance of making it to the World Cup but face difficult competition from super powers Germany and Russia and a 3rd place finish in the group may well be considered a successful campaign.
If the Welsh under-perform and don’t meet expectations Toshack may well find himself under pressure but at the moment his young team seem to be beginning to gel and should become better the longer the play together.
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