CARDIFF (AFP) - Wales captain Gary Speed retired from international football and said he would consider any offer to manage his country as his teammate Robbie Savage demanded he be handed the post immediately.
The veteran called time after Mark Hughes' last match in charge, a 3-2 home defeat to Poland that all but ends their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006.
But while Speed said he would talk to the Football Association of Wales (FAW) should they call on him, Savage insisted the Bolton Wanderers midfielder must be named Hughes' successor in a direct snub to contender John Toshack.
"Don't make Gary Speed apply for the job, offer the job to Gary Speed," The Birmingham City battler demanded.
"He shouldn't apply. He should be offered it, simple as that. What's the point in Gary applying if they turn him down?
"To be fair to Gary, it's not him saying he wants the job, it's everybody else saying that they want Gary to be the manager. Everybody within the camp," Savage insisted.
Speed agreed that he would not be volunteering his name for the post as he has another two years to run on his Bolton contract.
Hughes, who departs to manage Blackburn Rovers full time, took over five years ago whilst still a player and many see Speed as the natural choice to continue a successful formula by promoting from within and carry on Wales' emergence from the doldrums as a serious football power.
"I'm not going to think about it unless someone talks to me about it," the 35-year-old said.
"But I don't think I'd apply for it, no.
"No-one's spoken to me and that's the way it should be. If someone wants to talk to me the first thing I would do is pick up the phone and talk to Sam Allardyce, I'm sure he will have something to say about it," he said of his manager at the Reebok Stadium.
"I'll talk to them."
Savage though had previously indicated that he and several other senior players would quit if the FAW appointed Toshack, who took charge of one game 10 years ago before walking away after just 44 days.
Brian Flynn, Ian Rush and Gerard Houllier have also been mooted as contenders for the post.
"We want a manager who's going to come in and take us forward and the man who can do that is Gary Speed. He knows exactly what we're about, he knows the continuity we've got," Savage trumpeted.
"I want to play for Wales. Some managers don't like me, I don't like some managers. I think whoever the new manager is, if he doesn't like me, if he doesn't pick me, that's it.
I just urge the FAW to pick the right man for the job whoever it is. If it's Gary Speed, Brian Flynn or John Toshack just make sure they make the right decision," the Birmingham midfielder warned in comments vastly toned down from his previous outbursts.
Speed reflected on why he had decided to leave now after 85 caps including 43 as skipper with Wales all but out of the running for Germany 2006.
"It would be better for me to finish now than at the end of the campaign. I thought I knew it was my last game. Had we won tonight it might have been different. It's not about me, it's about Wales coming forward.
"Captaining your country is the biggest honour in the game and it never diminished at all. It's a great honour and when I do finish playing it's something I'll look back on with pride."