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You were quite emotional after that Cyprus game...
John Toshack: I must admit after the Cyprus game I really was low. I never thought of walking away, but I knew I couldn’t be happy with what I’d seen. A few people had games to forget, the goals we conceded were shocking and I generally wasn’t happy.
Once or twice it has happened before and I’ve felt the same but I didn’t come down on them. I had to this time. I wanted to make sure some of those players were as disappointed as I was. I didn’t sleep afterwards. The worst thing is that you go to bed knowing you won’t. You’re ready for that feeling and it’s not nice. Perhaps it was because I had seen we had given ourselves a chance of winning four away games on the bounce and finishing third. With all the problems we’ve had that would have been some achievement.

Were you worried you might “lose the dressing-room”?
That’s a phrase journalists like to use but it doesn’t concern me. I was told once at Real Madrid, ‘We don’t wash our dirty linen in public’, after I had a go at the players, but I told the president, "I`ve been doing that for three months now and the linen still isn't clean". I have blamed myself, but there comes a time when the players have to realise they are behind it too. We had done it with a spoonful of sugar, now it was time to do it with a hammer. I had to know they were as disappointed as me; I had to know they were ready for the next game and I thought the best way to do that was to hammer them.

A few of the fans have taken to hammering you.
I always say the customer is right. The fans pay their money and they are entitled to their say. I have no problems with that. I’ve been insulted in six languages over 30 years so you have to accept that people who pay their money are always right. Personally, I know we are heading in the right direction with this side. We had to start from scratch and start using young players, and that will pay off when they mature.

Is it difficult managing a group of young players in today’s game?
We’ve reached a point now in international football where the game has changed so much over the years. I read one international player had been away for 10 days, didn’t get a game and was quoted as saying he was happy to be back at his club. Maybe as they get older and have families they think in a different way to what we used to. Some of these clubs give their players a week off (when they have no domestic games because of the 10-day international break). With the way these players are nowadays they go to Dubai for five days or Los Angeles or wherever. We went to Barry Island for a game of cricket on a Monday afternoon. They might be thinking about what they’re missing if they are spending 10 days training with the international team and not playing. At the end of it all you can’t turn round and say ‘thanks for coming’. If they’ve turned up and not played, you feel obligated to say thanks, but it shouldn’t be like that, should it? Not for competitive games. You shouldn’t have to go round cap in hand saying ‘please turn up’. It shouldn’t be that way. It’s international football.

Is it fair to say Wales are under-achieving?
Look at the retirements before and after the first game away to the Czech Republic. Paul Jones, Andy Melville, Mark Delaney, our captain Ryan Giggs, John Hartson all, for one reason or another, have finished. Others too. We had used two goalkeepers in 16 years and now I’ve had to use four in nine matches. Four captains in a campaign. International players should be at their best when they are 28 to 31-years-old; we don’t have players over 28. Of the 30 (games played since Toshack took over) we have won 11, lost 11 and drawn eight. We are treading water, but if you think of the problems we have had with continuity and whatever, it’s OK. There’s only Simon Davies, Danny Gabbidon and Craig Bellamy from the team I took over. If you’re a club you take players in. We can’t buy or sell. This was always going to be a transition. It was a case where we needed to start from scratch, get the young players in the side and learning what international football is about. Look at the boys we have given caps to: Hennessey, Bale, Nyatanga, Ledley, Duffy, Craig Davies, Arron Davies, Cotterill, Eardley, Gunter, all these coming through together. They are immature now, as we’ve seen in a few of the games, but in a few years they will have so much experience for their age that they will be a force. They have talent, but they need the experience to go with it.

What about the experienced players you are leaving out of the side?
We could stick with some of the older ones, but I think that’s just going through the motions, letting the grass grow under you. They haven’t done it before, so why think they are going to do it in the future? So you push more through and somewhere down the line we get the benefit. For me it’s the only way forward because we haven’t done anything doing it the other way. It’s not like you back down the road and bring [back] in [previous] players - whose names we won’t go into. If they didn’t do it then at their peak, they won’t do it now. Ten months from now, when the World Cup qualifiers start, we’ll see how many of those are around.

So qualification for a major championship is not on the cards in the near future?
For us to qualify a lot of things have to come together at the same time. We haven’t done it in the past despite the calibre of some of the players we’ve had. To expect those we have now to come in and do it in these circumstances is not realistic. However, what I can guarantee is that continuity means everything and the players I’ve put together now will have at least six future chances of qualifying for a championship.

The draw for the 2010 World Cup looks quite tough. How do you rate our chances?
As much as you respect all the teams, maybe we can push the Russians and the Finns hard and go all out for that second spot. I think the important thing for us is to have our big players available for the big games, because we need them, as we don’t have a large pool to choose from.

So there's plenty more work to do?
When I was offered the job, I was offered three years. I wouldn’t take three years. I was mulling over one or two other opportunities. Financially, far better off. I knew what would be coming and I thought it was a five-year job. I don’t like doing that because it sounds like you are taking an insurance policy on your job, but this job needs time. By the end of my contract, people will see the Wales team is in good shape.

Will you make it to the end of your contract?
I certainly won’t walk away.

Wales play Norway in a friendly at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, on February 6. Ticket details to be confirmed. See www.faw.org.uk for more details

It's been an up and down year for Welsh football.
A decent draw with Germany made up for the embarrassment of that drubbing by Cyprus, but
there's still much work to be done, as John Toshack
tells RedHanded’s Richie McGowan

Tackling Toshack