Toshack's Wales warning for Koumas (original) (raw)

JOHN TOSHACK has warned Jason Koumas he is drinking in the last-chance saloon with his international career after another Wales no-show for tonight's Liberty Stadium friendly against Bulgaria.

West Brom rebel Koumas' absence from Toshack's squad stands out like a sore thumb because every other star name has once again turned up for this evening's game.

Quizzed about yet another Koumas no-show, Toshack at first put on a diplomatic front by explaining the midfielder's unsettled club future made it impossible for him to play against Bulgaria.

But Toshack's hard-line stance against players not fully committed to the Wales cause has already spelt the end of the international careers of Robbie Savage, Ben Thatcher and Danny Collins.

And although he is clearly cutting Koumas more slack because of his undoubted playmaking talent, Toshack's real thoughts came out when he was pressed on the matter further.

"Jason's absence will not be held against him," Toshack began, before going on to say, "He was not with us in San Sebastian, he didn't play against Slovenia in Swansea last year, he's not here again this time.

"Obviously, if this continues, there will come a time when we say, 'Hey, enough is enough.'"

Although Toshack didn't expand upon that veiled threat, the message there to Koumas was crystal clear - the other Welsh players turn up for games, so should you.

Earlier, Toshack had appeared to defend Koumas' decision to withdraw from the Wales squad because of the unique circumstances surrounding his club future.

"Jason has not kicked a ball since the first weekend in May and when we named this current Wales squad we presumed his future would have been resolved," he said.

"There is not much point in him being here, but as things stand his inclusion for our Euro 2008 qualifying opener against the Czech Republic is very doubtful.

"Jason not having done any pre-season training is not in anybody's interest. I'm led to believe that by the end of the week he will definitely be training somewhere.

"But, look, I don't want to say anything else on the subject. I spent an hour and a half at a Press conference last week talking about a whole range of issues.

"Yet the only thing I saw in print the following day were articles about Koumas and John Hartson. I find that disappointing - I would rather focus upon the people here to play for Wales.

"Every one of the players we picked, Jason Koumas and the injured Dave Partridge apart, are here with us. That's what I want to focus upon."

Among those present in the Welsh camp are Toshack's other star names including Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Simon Davies, Rob Earnshaw, Mark Delaney and Danny Gabbidon.

Each of those will feature tonight in a 4-4-2 line-up which Toshack will use not so much to plan ahead for the Czech match, but for the home games after that against Slovakia and Cyprus in October.

The Welsh boss will opt for a more cagey 5-3-2 formation in Teplice where a draw will suffice, but seems set to adopt a more traditional British-style approach for at least one of those Millennium Stadium matches Wales have to win.

And Toshack acknowledged a key figure in at least some of those games could be Earnshaw, whose two-goal salvo enabled Wales to beat World Cup finalists Trinidad and Tobago in their last game in May.

Asked about Earnshaw's goal potential for tonight and the coming Euros, Toshack said, "If you are talking about an out and out goalscorer, that's a job Rob does better than anybody else in the squad.

"We didn't actually play particularly well against Trinidad and Tobago, yet he popped up with two goals and we won a game 2-1 which we could easily have lost.

"There will clearly be games where his presence is important to us and I'm glad to see he has sorted out his club future and is doing well with Norwich.

"Craig Bellamy is also doing well with Liverpool, so that should give us a goal threat against the Bulgarians.

"It's fair to say that I will use this game not so much to prepare for the Czech match, but the Slovakia and Cyprus games beyond that.

"I already know what we have to do and how I want us to line up against the Czechs, but perhaps we can work on one or two things (tonight) for the coming Millennium Stadium games.

"That said, we can never get too far ahead of ourselves. I look at teams like Liverpool and Chelsea where the managers have two players for every position. Thus if someone is injured, a ready-made replacement steps in.

"We don't have that luxury. We are a much smaller group and until we know exactly who turns up, we can never say for certain how we will play.

"What I can categorically state, however, is that we are in a much better position than we were a year ago.

"Back then, we played against Slovenia in Swansea without Giggs, Bellamy, Collins, Delaney, Davies and Koumas. This time, Koumas apart, they are each here and available for selection.

"On top of that, we have our under-21s playing against Israel in a UEFA Championship game on Wednesday night with 12 players injured.

"Yet still Brian Flynn can pick a side with four full internationals in it. We could not even have dreamed about that 12 months ago, so it shows the strides we are making."

A disappointing crowd of around 5,000 is expected for tonight's friendly.