Rob Page insists nothing changes during caretaker charge of Wales

Nothing changes as Wales prepare to face the USA on Thursday according to caretaker boss Rob Page.

That was the message from the Wales camp today as Rob Page spoke at Wales’ pre-match media conference.

Robert Page will take charge of Wales for the their next three games in the absence of manger Ryan Giggs. Giggs is not part of the current Wales camp and instead, his assistant has been trusted for this international break.

Giggs did pick the squad for these games but Page will oversee training and the three fixtures.

“I’ve had the privilege of playing for my country as well and an extremely proud moment,” responded Page when asked on the honour of managing his country.

“It’s a situation that we gotta get on with and yeah of course its a proud moment to be part of the setup.

“Stepping up with Ryan last September was something I really enjoyed and I was offered to become assistant on a permanent basis.

“Whether it be caretaker manager or assistant its a proud moment”

Despite Page being in charge, there will communication between the coaching staff on team selection, ahead of the triple header.

“With regard to the squad and the camp nothing changes were in such a good place at the minute, were in a good place with regards to these two qualifiers. So if its not broke don’t fix it.

There’s momentum coming into this camp. It is important coming into this game with the USA that we keep that momentum going. We’ve set ourselves up nicely for two tough games.

We know that the rewards are there at the end of it. What I mean by that is that it’ll continue to be Ryans squad and we’ll just oversee the three games” said Page.

Asked about team selection, “Amongst all the staff we’ll have our input we’ll have our say and of course I know he’s a phone call away if I need a chat, if i need to talk about anything that’s been brought up on camp”

“We’ll have conversations before the game, and we’ll try to anticipate you know maybe how things are gonna go.

It’s a great game for us to keep the momentum going but we’ve also gotta have one eye on Sunday’s game against the Republic and then the following game against Finland”.

“There’ll be a plan in place, and hopefully that goes to plan and we’ll have minutes in mind for certain players”.

The already impressive set up has allowed Page to just pick up rather than make changes.

“Since I was involved a year last September, I’ve been really impressed with the environment which has been created by Ryan and the coaching staff.”

“There’s no coincidence as to the success we’ve had in recent months putting ourselves into a great position to not only win our group but to win the league and get promoted”.

One of those coaching staff is Albert Stuivenberg who is Mikel Arteta’s assistant at Arsenal. Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has expressed he is “not comfortable” with his players working with a rivals coaching staff. Mourinho’s concerns are about the amount of minutes, particularly Gareth Bale will play whilst with the Welsh squad.

“We’ve had Tottenham players involved in the squad now for a couple of years. We’ve got his three players and of course he’s going to show an interest.

Albert’s been involved with the welsh set-up for a couple of years as well and there have never been any issues”.

“There’s a plan that we have for Gareth, no different to any other player”.

Page understands where Mourinho is coming from with regards to Tottenham players,

“Were borrowing his players to come and play for wales so of course were gonna look after them.

We’ve got one of the best medical teams in the country and we trust in what they do is in the best interest for players“.

“Were not going to undo anything done at club level and that’s irrespective of whether your Gareth Bale or whoever.

We trust that what we deliver is elite sport and elite preparation”.

Overall Page’s message ahead of these games was business as usual for him, the coaching staff and the players.

“We’ll pick a team to go give us the best chance tomorrow”.

(Featured Image: Lewis Mitchell)