With the European Championships in France starting this weekend and with Welsh football fans making their final travel plans as they prepare to support their country at an international tournament for the first time in 58 years, Chris Wathan’s new book Together Stronger: The Rise of Welsh Football’s Golden Generation has been published by St. David’s Press.

Together Stronger is the definitive account of how this Wales team qualified for France and, through its 280 pages, award-winning journalist Chris Wathan explains how the success of the team is far more than just the talent of Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale and Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey.

Together Stronger tells the amazing story of how a golden generation of talented young players were identified and capped by John Toshack and Brian Flynn, developed into an effective and confident team by Gary Speed and, in incredibly difficult circumstances, united in an intensely close-knit and well-drilled squad by Chris Coleman to create the most successful qualification campaign in Welsh football history.

Key highlights of Together Stronger include:

• John Toshack’s most revealing assessment yet on his time in charge, his struggles to overcome the sickening injury suffered by Aaron Ramsey, his admission of where he went wrong and his pride at seeing the kids he capped realise their dreams.

• The devastating reaction to the death of the iconic Gary Speed from players and staff after the foundations he laid for success.

• What the world’s most expensive player is really like by the teammates and management that know Gareth Bale best.

• The incredibly honest account of manager Chris Coleman on his realisation he had got it wrong in trying to take over from friend Speed, his battles to win the trust of a team and a nation and his emotions on leading a harmonious side to their 50-year goal.

Speaking about his book, Chris commented: “The foundations for Wales’ qualification success for Euro 2016 were laid over a decade ago, in the aftermath of the play-off defeat against Russia in 2003 and Together Stronger is the inside story of that 10-year process.

“I’m very grateful that many of Wales’ key players, including Chris Gunter, Neil Taylor, Joe Ledley and captain Ashley Williams, agreed to speak to me and share their thoughts and experiences on the development of the squad and the increased professionalism of the Wales set up.

“It was also an honour to speak to Wales managers John Toshack and Chris Coleman, who were very candid when revealing their innermost feelings about their roles in creating a squad that would tell the greatest tale Welsh football has ever told.”

Priced at £13.99, the 280-page book includes 32 pages of colour photographs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Wathan is the award-winning football correspondent for Media Wales, which includes the Western Mail, Wales on Sunday and WalesOnline.co.uk. Named Welsh Sports Hall of Fame ‘Journalist of the Year’ in 2014 and the Wales Media Awards ‘Sports Reporter of the Year’ in 2015, he is regarded as one of the most respected writers on the game in Wales and was one of the few journalists to cover every step of Wales’ successful Euro 2016 campaign having reported from close to 100 Wales games since 2002.