FORMER Wales manager Bobby Gould has appealed for current boss Gary Speed to be given more time to prove himself.

Speed has suffered three defeats in his first four matches in charge of the national side and suffered another blow this week with the news that Wales are likely to be in the bottom pot of seeds for this month’s 2014 World Cup draw.

The July 30 draw in Rio de Janeiro will be based on Fifa’s rankings system.

Wales are currently tied with the Faroe Islands in 114th place on 273 points – with one of those teams set to join the likes of Andorra in pot six.

And the Faroes are lobbying Fifa to include decimal points in their calculations – something which would see them leapfrog Wales into pot five.

Fifa will publish its new ranking list on July 27, three days before the World Cup draw. Given that neither Wales nor the Faroe Islands played in July their position should not change.

But Gould, who was in charge of Wales between 1995 and 1999, insists that it will make no difference to Speed if Wales are in pot five or six.

“It makes no difference whatsoever because you’re still going to get the big guns from pots one and two,” said the ex-Wimbledon and Cardiff City boss.

“Wales have won two games out of ten and it’s only going to get tougher because Australia (who Wales take on in a friendly on August 10) are a good side.

“Montenegro and Switzerland have improved dramatically and then there is the trip to Wembley to play England.

“Gary has had a tough start with the games in Ireland after a long hard season and with very little time to prepare the team,” added Gould.

“He’s learning at the sharp end because people say he’s played all these games at international level but he hasn’t been a manager for all that long. He’ll be learning from week to week and it’s a difficult period.

“People have got to have a bit of faith and understand the difficulties he’s facing. He needs time to turn things around and, as I said to him after the win over Northern Ireland, he needs to do it his way.”