I imagine a few of the squad players are looking at the Wales side, without all their star players, and seeing a few years of struggle ahead.
I think when you had a core of lower level premier league/championship players it was probably worth keeping them together as they dropped down the leagues.
Once 1 or 2 retire you have probably lost enough of what made it special to stop it being viable.
The Gunters amd Williamses weren't being picked on club form and probably haven't been for a long time.
I watched Together Stronger on iPlayer during the World Cup, a series on how Wales improved resulting in them qualifying for tournaments.
They did similar when their experienced players retired in the mid 2000s. It allowed players like Gunter to get plenty of game time, eventually giving them a core of players with 30/40+ caps, becoming more like a club side.
Bale and Ramsey coming through made a huge difference too of course.
Good luck Jonny. He was a key part of our promotion team.
Since I have followed football Wales have always been a strange mix of some outstanding players including World class performers and journeymen from way down the league.
Let's hope the new generation do their nation proud
He’s actually had a good season there. Might be a case where he’s happy to be released to move up a division, or his wages are high.
Could definitely see the Wrexham thing though.
without joining the "next club" speculation without any basis other than he's welsh and so are Wrexham... the first point is correct. Being released doesn't necessarily mean they don't want you. It could be for a host of reasons.
He’s actually had a good season there. Might be a case where he’s happy to be released to move up a division, or his wages are high.
Could definitely see the Wrexham thing though.
without joining the "next club" speculation without any basis other than he's welsh and so are Wrexham... the first point is correct. Being released doesn't necessarily mean they don't want you. It could be for a host of reasons.
I didn’t say anything about the Welsh connection. But I could see it on the basis that he’s a League 1 quality player who probably has a fairly high wage for League 2, and therefore Wrexham could very well fit.
Jonny Williams knows Andy Woodman when Woody was at Palace with Pardew from July 2015 to Jan 2017 (Joniesta was out on loans but kept coming back for treatment) and could well know him from when Freddie Woodman (Preston) was a lofty 12 year old keeper at Palace and Jonny was a tiny 15 year old.
He’s not welsh although he played for them and wasn’t known to garner. His family are in SE London / Kent
He has known Garner for about 20 years. The main reason he signed for Swindon.
Correct: Not only does Ben Garner and Willians both come from Pembury in Kent but Ben Garner was coaching the youngsters at Palace so will know Jonny well despite not coaching his age group very often.
So it could be Colchester, Bromley or will he go back to his roots and play for Tonbridge Angels with the bearded Waggy ?
Wrexham would be his best pay offer now and Jonny would accept cameo roles.
A smashing guy who is the friendliest professional footballer I have ever chatted to on a few occasions.
Charlton is history and if anyone suggests that JW is coming back can they be banned for a couple of weeks 👍😤
When we won promotion in 2019 he chose to become a free agent after the final whilst he assessed his options, but ended up staying.
Not quite true. He desperately wanted to stay and was heartbroken when he was told he was to be released as we simply couldn’t afford it. Things changed later in the summer which allowed us to sign him within the budget with him taking a significant pay cut to stay.
Comments
Once 1 or 2 retire you have probably lost enough of what made it special to stop it being viable.
The Gunters amd Williamses weren't being picked on club form and probably haven't been for a long time.
I watched Together Stronger on iPlayer during the World Cup, a series on how Wales improved resulting in them qualifying for tournaments.
They did similar when their experienced players retired in the mid 2000s. It allowed players like Gunter to get plenty of game time, eventually giving them a core of players with 30/40+ caps, becoming more like a club side.
Bale and Ramsey coming through made a huge difference too of course.
Since I have followed football Wales have always been a strange mix of some outstanding players including World class performers and journeymen from way down the league.
Let's hope the new generation do their nation proud
His family are in SE London / Kent
Jonny Williams knows Andy Woodman when Woody was at Palace with Pardew from July 2015 to Jan 2017 (Joniesta was out on loans but kept coming back for treatment) and could well know him from when Freddie Woodman (Preston) was a lofty 12 year old keeper at Palace and Jonny was a tiny 15 year old.
Correct:
Not only does Ben Garner and Willians both come from Pembury in Kent but Ben Garner was coaching the youngsters at Palace so will know Jonny well despite not coaching his age group very often.
So it could be Colchester, Bromley or will he go back to his roots and play for Tonbridge Angels with the bearded Waggy ?
Wrexham would be his best pay offer now and Jonny would accept cameo roles.
A smashing guy who is the friendliest professional footballer I have ever chatted to on a few occasions.
Charlton is history and if anyone suggests that JW is coming back can they be banned for a couple of weeks 👍😤
Things changed later in the summer which allowed us to sign him within the budget with him taking a significant pay cut to stay.