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There's 5 in that side, Ward, Roberts, Rodon, Davies and Wilson. 12 of the current squad are welsh born, and that's not including Ramsey and Bale. Most of them have played Victory Shield football too, it's not as if we've found them from nowhere. Thomas, Ampadu, Smith and T. Roberts were part of the side that beat England in 2014.Originally Posted by Divine Wright
When I said he's hardly played, it was meant for those who think he's our 7th or 8th best player. I have already seen him play enough to reach my own conclusions that he is much better than that
Anyway, let's see what happens against Denmark when the chips are really down. If I am wrong I will gladly admit it
That’s exactly my point. There has always been a majority welsh-born team.
The FAW has obviously gone big on finding foreign born young dual nationality players in the last few years. I think it’s a dangerous tactic for the long term.
For one, it means there is something wrong with scouting, promoting football or developing welsh footballers in the LoW or cardiff/swansea systems.
I think we’ll eventually end up suffering from this strategy due to the “Michael Owen” effect.
Anyone who is of obvious world class talent will be snapped up by england lured by the chance to become stars at biannual international competitions, especially in a world where footballers seem to be getting more and more individualistic. This in fact is one of the things I love about our new stock of foreign born players. They seem to have values that go beyond personal gain.
Even so, I think it’s something to be careful of and we shouldn’t be naive enough to think this calibre of player will always choose Wales. We need to carry on improving the system from within the country so the two approaches can complement eachother.
They're trying to find good players. That's it. They're all playing through the age groups and want to play for Wales, in the UK it's going to be a problem that people move about pretty freely. There are players there that have turned down England to play for us, I think you're being too logical. Michael Owen was born in England and dreamed of playing for England. He could have played for Wales but he wasn't welsh.
You're still depending on the will of an individual. Look at what happened with Declan Rice. When he decided to go elsewhere it was a real kick in the teeth for an Irish team already light on quality players. We are fortunate that the current crop have a clear idea of where they want to be and that they could actually turn out to be players that might have got into the England squad. But that's through luck rather than design.
I think everybody knows the feeling of desperation when a young dual-national has yet to get a full cap for his country. You're always a little bit on tenterhooks until he becomes a full international. And I'm sure in the future we'll see people who come through the youth set up here and then decide last minute to play for England.
I'm just saying that it's a risky game to play and that your "bread and butter" should be homegrown players who can only represent Wales. It's very logical, as you say, but I think using logic to anticipate problems in the future is the right way to go about doing things!
They're not our bread and butter though, the majority of the squad are welsh born. It's up to the FAW and Giggs, Roberts etc to make sure these lads feel Welsh. If they're not Welsh, they'll know. Woodburn, Ampadu etc have never wavered. If Brooks and Ampadu, who have welsh parents and want to play for Wales over England, then great. We're not jettisoning Welsh players, we're picking the best ones available. In South Wales in particular we've had Allen, Bale and Ramsey come through at the same age or pretty near. Those three would arguably get in every Welsh side ever, Bale for an absolute certainty. There's going to be a balance where we won't see players that good from a country of 3m people for a while. We might, but we probably won't. We've been spoilt.
Our best team still has Hennessey, Roberts/Gunter, Davies, Allen, Ramsey, Bale, Wilson/Lawrence (or both). That's a Welsh born spine, supplemented with Roberts, Ampadu, Smith, Mepham, Ash, Brooks etc.
In a 2020, we'll probably line up like:
Ward
Roberts Rodon Mepham Davies
Allen Ampadu
Brooks Ramsey Wilson
Bale
Or something like that. There's 3 "Anglos", and 2 have welsh parents.
I was refering to future generations. Not present.
As things stand, when the 2016 squad are all but retired in 5 years or so we’ll possibly have a team made up of majority foreign-born players, which is fine , but it’s the generation of youngsters coming through in a decades time that will be interesting.
Just to reiterrate, I’m not questioning the legitimacy of foreign-born players. Just saying it’s risky putting all your eggs in one basket.
It's all about heritage, if my mother or father were born elsewhere, I would gladly run through brick walls if I was chosen to represent the land of their birth.
We are witnessing all the hard work of Osian Roberts finally coming to fruition.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...-wales-2245679
This is the sort of thing I mean by us relying too much on the will of dual-nationality players.,..this one is kind of the other way round though....in that he’s very much welsh in terms of upbringing...
“Born in Liverpool, Matondo is also eligible for England but - for now at least - is happy with the country where he has spent the majority of his life.
"I am set on Wales at the moment, we'll see what happens but I'm set on Wales."”
That type of thing makes me feel nervy...so nervy that I’d be tempted to fastrack him through to the senior squad. At least that way you know where you stand with the kid.
We'll see what happens could mean both ways. Its possible that Wales don't want him in the future.
If I was a youngster, I'd be conscious about appearing arrogant as most players don't become internationals. That could be what he means.
Yes, I suppose it isn’t entirely clear what he means and maybe the previous paragraph frames it in a “there’s still a chance for england” way . I imagine he was asked something to effect of “born in england, representing wales, is that where you see your future??” .....ye, it’s speculative regardless.
It’s just nice when the talent doesn’t have to make a choose!
...... re. Wales wanting him. He looks the part if his vids are anything to go by. Another potentially exciting forward player.
I'm sure we do want him; but us saying that is different to him suggesting it, that's what I meant about not appearing arrogant.
People move from Wales to get jobs in England, stay after going to uni there, etc, it's pretty common. I think we'll have a lot more like this in future where a player is Welsh by family but born in a different country.
Do you not think we might get the players who are not quite good enough or who don’t have the ambition to do it for England ? In that case, we’d always be a little bit behind....maybe that’s our natural position though, considering the size of the country.
Like I say, as long as it’s complimenting a strong unit of homegrown players, it will be a welcome bonus to welcome more players of the calibre of brooks and ampadu.
People move about a lot more than they used to. It's almost a requirement nowadays with the rise of the multi-national corporations, and consolidation in business sectors, e.g. if you are an accountant, most people aspire to having a Big Four accountancy firm on their CV, so you have to move where the jobs are.
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