Wales take the latest transitional step on their road to life without Gareth Bale this weekend and the chairman of the nation’s biggest domestic club believes he has a proposal to ensure they can remain major tournament participants in the long-term.
Rob Page’s team face Armenia and Turkey in the next four days as they aim to reach next summer’s European Championship without their greatest ever player.
But Mike Harris, the chairman of 15-times champions The New Saints, is calling on the FA of Wales to include at least one player from their Premier League in an attempt to begin turning the domestic game into a stronger force and eventually produce a conveyor belt of ready-made international calibre stars.
“They would get to feel what it is like to be in the camp but it also forces the management to see the talent available in the country,” Harris said. “There are ancient prejudices that people think there’s nothing good other than Swansea, Cardiff and Wrexham.
“By taking one player into the camp they become more marketable and that helps the clubs and that long-term helps Wales.”
FAW chief executive Noel Mooney has previously spoken of plans to ensure they become the most sustainable association in the world. And that includes growing the domestic league, which is ranked the sixth lowest of 55.
Yet Harris thinks having a WPL player in the senior squad – much like the mandatory policy of club teams requiring a minimum number of homegrown talents in their side to compete in UEFA competition – is a must to ensure development.
“Within club competitions you can have 16 players from absolutely anywhere you want in a squad but the remaining eight must either be from the national association or their own club’s academy,” he adds. “They’ve found a balance, it works in every country.
“The same philosophy should be taken to the national teams. I’m not saying our league at the moment is abundant with players [at the required level] but there are very good players in the league.”
TNS have won the past two titles and were recently awarded Category A academy status. But they continue to face an uphill battle when it comes to retaining their best young players and are repeatedly left to feel like second-class citizens compared to English clubs.
“We’re in line with a category 2 academy in England now, it’s fantastic recognition of what we’re doing,” the club’s head of coaching Chris Sergeant says. “Now it’s a case of parents seeing what we’re doing and hopefully their boys will stay in Wales.
“The main thing for me is the FAW are developing really good coaches but the problem will still be transfers across to England. The FAW can promote our domestic programmes a lot more than they did in the past. It’s alright me standing in front of parents but it holds more weight if the FAW promote things more and showcase how well we’re doing.
“I worked at Everton for a few years and we’re not too far away from what we’re delivering but a million miles in terms of infrastructure. Naturally some players will slip away [to England].”
For Harris it is predominantly an issue of finances and the main concern is academy players being lured away after several years at TNS without the club making a penny.
“If a big English club comes calling, no parent wants their child denied that opportunity,” he says. “It’s the clubs in League One or League Two who want to steal your players without money are the problem.
“We’ve had a steady flow of players moving out. One example is Jack Vale is at Blackburn and a product of our academy and he’s now knocking on the door of the Wales team.
“We don’t find it as hard as other clubs in Wales because most of our significant talent is under contract. We want clubs who want our players to talk to us. With Jack we didn’t accept compensation but had an agreement where we would get a transfer fee if he made a first-team appearance - and that’s worked out well.”
