It was always going to be as predicted. Chris Gunter and John Williams both league two players getting ahead of some up and coming Welsh talent such as Ollie Cooper at Swansea. This won’t be a mission to question the Cymru manager, well not much, but more of an attempt to explain why. Page, whatever you think of him has led Wales to the World Cup, and he has done that with the majority of the players he has chosen in his squad, bar a few.

We start with Tyler Roberts, on loan at Queens Park Rangers from Leeds, he has missed out after sustaining a calf injury against Birmingham City recently, and Rabbi Matondo was omitted having made only started five games since moving to Rangers. That last non selection is possibly the first anomaly in his squad selection. If Page is sticking with the players that he knows, and being loyal to them then Matondo should have been in the squad. You can’t have it both ways.

But of course there is only room for twenty six.

Including Joe Allen has come in for some criticism as he hasn’t featured for Swansea for some two months. A hamstring injury against Hull City in a Swansea 3-0 win has meant lots of rehab but no games since then. On Allen, Page said: “We’re giving him every opportunity to be fit for that first game. He’s progressing as we want him to. If he’s fit, he’s playing. He’s massive for how I play and the success we’ve had. He’s a senior lad, he’s got vast amounts of experience playing tournament football as well so he knows the game inside out and that’s invaluable. That’s why I’m throwing everything at it”

Let’s be honest Allen could be playing at Wrexham and he would have gone.

Page has aimed criticism at Swansea with regards to Allen’s prolonged return, but left his comments hanging for interpretation to be made. It has been mentioned on Twitter that Page’s recent comments about Swansea City are not going to bode well for inter club rivalry following Wales. Here is an example of some of the dissent. First off from ex swan Andy Robinson. The following are pictorial and not links.

Wales followers on Twitter too got involved. There are hundreds of opinions many not happy with the squad.

Another example here from a Swans Indie follower.

There is a widely held belief amongst Wales followers west of Cardiff that Page’s selection is more about bias than anything else, there is some evidence especially the inclusion of Rubin Colwill who hasn’t played more than a quarter of an hour of football in months. And the exceptionally bizarre choice of Mark Harris. Both Cardiff players. However, we don’t think he would be as openly daft as that. The omission of Olly Cooper though and his comments, especially from the Wales manager who didn’t attend the south Wales derby are strange. Page inferred that when he did go and watch Oli Cooper he was on the bench and that was Russell Martin’s fault.

Some ill thought out comments there from Page.

From that standpoint are we to decipher he has no reference point from all the other games Cooper has played, the goals scored and the assists ? Here’s another view from our one of our followers on Twitter.

The biggest mistake for many was Cooper’s non inclusion along with Ryan Hedges in lieu of the likes of John Williams and Chris Gunter, and of course the Cardiff pair of Colwill and Harris. Here’s hoping they prove us and many hundreds of others wrong. Another lower league inclusion is Matt Smith at MK Dons, despite his previous involvement with Wales, is he a better pick than Cooper ?

There will always be opinions and more opinions in situations such as this. We have what we have and we have Wales at the World Cup. For now no matter if you think it’s the right choice or just a jolly boys outing as a reward for getting Wales to Qatar we are very close to some football history.

Getting out of the group will be Wales World Cup Final.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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