Club v Country - new twist ?

October 2, 2008—

The argument about who should come first, club or country has been around for a long time in Football, but the recent appointment of Dean Saunders as manager of Wrexham adds an extra twist.

Former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker Saunders was handed the managerial hot seat at the Racecourse this week after the departure of his predecessor Brian Little, who had only been boss at Wrexham for 12 months.

The difference is, Saunders is also currently involved with the Wales National team in his part-time role as assitant to manager John Toshack and unlike the Premiership clubs, Conference national clubs do not get the Saturday off when there are international matches being played.

This Saturday Saunders has his first match in charge of Wrexham away to Forest Green Rovers, but then the fun begins. Wales face Liechtenstein in Cardiff at the same time as Wrexham have a home match against Histon. Shortly after that and Wrexham will be preparing for their away fixture at Mansfield Town, while Saunders will still be away in Germany with the Welsh team.

While I don't doubt that Dean Saunders is fully qualified to take over the hot seat at Wrexham, surely it will be difficult to do it at the same time he's focusing on the arguably far more difficult task of making Wales successfull at International level.

It'll be interesting to see how that one shapes out and whether one of those roles eventually has to give. I'm betting that although Saunders was first choice for, and subsequently handed the Wrexham job without him even applying, a club that has had five managers in 22 months probably won't be so accomodating if there's not a noticeable change in club fortunes very soon.