FT: Ireland 0 - 1 Wales (official match thead)

[Divine Wright]

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.

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.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

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.

[Divine Wright]

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!

[Pedro de la Rosa]

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.

[Divine Wright]

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.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

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.

Why and how are we putting all our eggs in one basket? Who is missing out? Do you think that we aren't developing players intentionally? I would be very surprised in 5 years or so if the majority of our team is foreign born. Pretty much all of our u21 squad are Welsh born, while we've got some extremely talented young players in Wilson, Rodon, Roberts etc.