FEW managerial changes in football history have been as difficult and fraught as the appointment of Chris Coleman as national team coach in succession to Gary Speed.

Traditionally managers leave international jobs because they’ve been so successful they take a better paid post (see Mark Hughes) or because they’ve failed so badly they are removed (see John Toshack, Bobby Gould and a long list of others).

However, Chris Coleman was appointed in unique circumstances and, with due respect to him, no one wanted Coleman for the job.

No one wanted change of any description from the most successful spell with the national side since Hughes took them to the brink of the 2002 European Championships.

It wasn’t anti-Coleman, it was simply the fact that the Speed tragedy was fully occupying our minds and, at the risk of sounding like a lifestyle guru on This Morning, our hearts.

It was beyond difficult for Coleman and I think he deserves enormous credit for the way he has handled the role so far.

‘Cookie’ showed tremendous grace at his press conference when he was appointed manager and he also conducted himself superbly at the Gary Speed Memorial Match, an evening so emotional I am not sure how he maintained such a sharp focus.

He retains enormous credit for attempting to build a relationship with the popular (with the players) Raymond Verheijen and certainly didn’t lose any of it when Dutch Ray chucked the toys out of the pram and quit on Twitter (like all good professionals do).

Coleman is making all the right noises to try and keep Craig Bellamy involved and is doing all he can to ensure Wales hit the ground running for the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign. So far, he couldn’t be doing a better job.