Coleman keen as mustard to avoid cold turkey before Euro 2016

Made your plans for France yet?

Tickets, travel and hotels sorted?

Wales manager Chris Coleman has done all of that in good time for the Euro 2016 tournament which starts on Friday, June 10 - as if you needed to be told.

But make no mistake, in football terms, the clock is ticking fast for Coleman and his squad.

As things stand Ashley Williams, Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and company have ONLY four and a half hours of football in their Wales kits before the Euros begin.

That's about as long as it would take to cook a decent sized turkey for a football team on Christmas Day!

The Wales squad will come out of international hibernation on Thursday, March 24 when they entertain fellow finalists Northern Ireland, at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Coleman's men will stay together before flying out to play the Ukraine, on March 28.

Wales have also confirmed a friendly against Sweden, in Stockholm on Sunday, June 5.

Then they head to France for that seismic opener with Slovakia, on Saturday, June 11 in Bordeaux.

In pure football terms, it's not too long, is it? Three friendlies?

Well, actually, the term ''friendly'' could not be less appropriate. They are warm-ups.

The players won't be looking at them as friendlies - there's too much at stake.

No doubt Coleman already knows the bulk of his squad for France. I'm pretty sure Gareth Bale knows not to plan any holidays for June - and hopefully early July!

I suspect as many as 19 or 20 players can correctly assume they will be on the flight from Stockholm to the Welsh base in France.

Others who have been in an around the squad during the qualifiers cannot be so sure.

Of course, club form will be a key factor for youngsters like Emyr Huws, George Williams and perhaps Tom Bradshaw to impress Coleman.

But, all the players know a good performance against Northern Ireland or the Ukraine could leave an indelible mark on Coleman as he considers his final list for France.

You may feel the days are dragging ahead of your footballing adventure of a lifetime.

There's still plenty of time to buy the euros, sort the gear to ensure a tan while you take in the tournament and study the French phrase book.

But Chris Coleman? He's got just the time it takes to cook a Christmas roast to ensure Euro 2016 doesn't turn into cold turkey for Wales.

Memorable friendlies

Not always the best results or even the best games - but all mean something special to someone.

The one which stands out for me, even though I was not there, was Wales 2-1 Trinidad and Tobago, May 25, 2006.

Memorable - not because it was the only game Wales have played against Trinidad and Tobago. Not because Rob Earnshaw scored twice. Not because it was played in Graz, Austria. Memorable because - in the 55th minute, manager John Toshack replaced David Vaughan with Gareth Bale. At the age of 16 years and 315 days, Bale became Wales' youngest ever international - and possibly the greatest!

Just like all good performances, this is a blog post of two halves - for the rest of my top ten Wales friendlies as suggested by my Twitter followers, visit @robphillipshere, or wait for the second half to follow here soon.