Wales manager Chris Coleman, you know, the one who stripped Aaron Ramsey of the captaincy given to him by his mentor Gary Speed before he killed himself, has hit out at clubs and seems to be swinging at Arsenal in particular over using the international break to rest players.
How very dare those pesky clubs!
International managers get right on my nerves with the way they act as if they are the ones who own the players, taking absolutely no responsibility for them when they get injured.
Urgh. Anyway.
Speaking to Wales online, Coleman said
“But we’re never going to do anything if we can’t get our best team out on the pitch and build momentum.
“The acid test is when they play for their club, don’t come to us because they are citing a little niggle, then play for their club again after an international. That tells me managers are resting their players. We must not let that happen, we can’t let that happen.
“Aaron is one of our best players and we don’t want domestic managers thinking they can use these two weeks as a rest period for their players.
“If someone doesn’t play for us and then the following week plays for his club then that tells me they simply used this period as a rest.
“My view is that every game for Wales is hugely important and I don’t want club managers thinking they can pull their players out of these coming matches just because we can’t qualify any more.”
I really do detest international football outside of a major tournament. How are they supposed to decide who qualifies for the tournament I hear you ask? Well, if they drew straws I’d be happy with that quite frankly as international games in the middle of the domestic season irks me beyond belief and international managers hitting out at the clubs who pay the weekly wages of these players irks me even further.
