Chris Coleman on verge of history in rebuilding Wales and reputation

Chris Coleman could have flat-batted the question and trotted out that tired cliche about looking no further ahead than the next game but the Wales manager knew he would have been kidding nobody. Wales are savouring the view from the top of Group B, within touching distance of qualifying for their first major tournament since 1958, and for the man on the verge of writing his name into the record books it is impossible not to dream.

“I don’t actually think about going down in history. I only allow myself to think what it would be like if we were playing in a full house at the Stade de France,” Coleman says. “I was out there watching Belgium beat France and I thought: ‘What I would give to be here with Wales.’ We know what our fans are like. We would take thousands. I do think like that and I can’t help it. I am a human being and you can’t help but imagine what it would be like.”

Nothing, however, is being taken for granted. Wales take on Cyprus in the sweltering heat of Nicosia on Thursday night before hosting Israel in Cardiff on Sunday and Coleman has been involved in football long enough to recognise the perils of getting into a discussion on the six points in 72 hours that would seal qualification for Euro 2016 with two fixtures to spare.

At the same time the former Fulham manager can be forgiven for allowing his mind to wander during a friendly in Paris on a Sunday afternoon, especially when the path to France for Wales seems like the road to redemption for him. Sacked by Coventry City in 2010, Coleman was working in the Greek second division when the Wales job became available in such tragic circumstances following the death of Gary Speed, his friend and former international team-mate, in November 2011.

The first few years were tough. There was a humiliating 6-1 defeat in Serbia in September 2012 and 12 months later Coleman was caught up in an embarrassment of a different kind after he lost his passport before a game in Macedonia and was unable to fly out with the team. Even this campaign started with boos when Andorra took the lead and Wales risked becoming the first team to fail to beat them in 45 competitive games until Gareth Bale – who else? –scored late on.The response to Coleman’s appointment was lukewarm at best. “A lot of people didn’t want me. I think there is also the Swansea-Cardiff thing, so a lot of people will never like me – I understand the geography behind it,” says Coleman, who was born in Swansea and played for the club. “It took me a lot of time as well to really man up and start doing things how I wanted to do it. I was doing things the way I thought Speedy wanted. I got burnt badly by that and slowly it has gone well since.”

Everything, however, has spectacularly clicked into place for Coleman and Wales since, culminating in that memorable 1-0 victory over Belgium at a raucous Cardiff City Stadium in June, when Bale’s goal opened up a three-point lead at the top of the group and made a nation believe something truly special was happening.

Ranked 117th in the world four years ago, when they were sandwiched between Haiti and Grenada, Wales are now ninth. Optimism abounds and Coleman, pointing to the “Together Stronger” marketing slogan that has become much more than a throwaway line, is keen to stress that it has been a collective effort. What he finds hard to accept, however, is the idea that anyone and everyone can lay claim to relighting the flame of Welsh football.