There cannot be too many things that annoy Wales manager Chris Coleman at the moment but clearly people taking the credit for what he has achieved in almost four years as Wales manager is one of them.

Coleman was appointed as successor to Gary Speed back in January 2012 and took over a national team in mourning. Progress was definitely coming under Speed before his untimely death but it shook the players to the core and it took them a while to recover.

As the nation looked to recover they slumped down the world rankings and missed out on the World Cup in 2014 finishing 5th in the group with the low point undoubtedly being a 6-1 reverse in Serbia in September 2012.

That shows you just how much Coleman has turned things around to get to the stage where this week he can be the first Wales manager to take their country to a major international finals.

But clearly he feels that there are people out there that are taking credit for the work that he has done and he was having none of it as he spoke to the media on the eve of the game in Cyprus

"It makes me laugh how people jump on a ­bandwagon where, not so long ago, everyone was under the radar" said Coleman

“When Wales are in the top 10 in the rankings and top of the group with four games to play, I see certain people want to take credit — people who haven’t been with us for a long period.

“Nobody wanted a piece of it when we weren’t winning. I never saw anybody stepping up saying, ‘I am responsible for this’, when we lost to Serbia.

“I never saw anybody claim it was down to them when we finished fifth in the last campaign. Now, it has been reversed and we are top. Good things are happening and certain people want a stake.

“But I know what our strength is and, whatever we have achieved, is not solely down to me or anybody — we have all been in it together. Individually they are good, but collectively they are much better. We have not qualified yet but I think we will and I have always been confident.”

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