CHRIS COLEMAN is expected to be confirmed as Gary Speed’s successor as manager of the Welsh national team today following talks with the Football Association of Wales this week.

The former Fulham manager, who resigned from his position at the financially-stricken Greek club Larissa last week, will be unveiled at a news conference today in Cardiff. The make-up of his backroom staff remains to be seen but the 41-year-old Coleman has previously indicated a willingness to work with Speed’s coaching staff, Raymond Verheijen and Osian Roberts, in an attempt to maintain the momentum built up by his predecessor before his death in November.

Coleman, who won 32 caps over a 10-year international career, has publicly expressed his admiration for the job undertaken by Speed, his former team-mate with Wales and a close friend, and will not seek to instigate radical change with the national set-up. Speaking on Sunday while working as a television pundit at Swansea City’s Premier League game against Arsenal, he said: “It’d be a stupid man who goes in there and takes the job, whether it’s me or anyone else, and changes everything. If it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it.

“But it’s a very sensitive situation. If I’m offered the job and accept, I will have mixed emotions. I don’t think you turn down Wales, and it would be the pinnacle for me.”