Ryan Giggs heaps praise on Swansea City & a Dig at Cardiff C

Ryan Giggs heaps praise on Swansea City and Graham Potter as he takes cheeky dig at Cardiff City -


By Tom Coleman


Tuesday 6th November 2018


Ryan Giggs says he's impressed by the young stars coming through the ranks at Swansea City under Graham Potter, but has suggested that bitter rivals Cardiff City need to do more to widen the pool of Welsh talent.

Giggs has handed places in his latest squad to Swans duo Connor Roberts and Dan James, with the latter hoping to continue a dazzling season by earning his first international cap, while the likes of Joe Rodon and Declan John have both been around the Wales set-up under his watch.

Speaking about the recent form of James, who recently delighted social media with his reaction to an early birthday surprise from his girlfriend, Giggs said: "He’s on fire at the moment. He’s someone who has genuine speed and someone who’s exciting who can start a game or just come on to make an impact. He was in the training camp for the Mexico game and was unlucky not to travel to LA.



RYAN GIGGS:

"He was in the last squad and hopefully he’ll show what he can do.

"You always want players joining the squad who are playing regularly, when you’ve got someone playing regularly and they’re confident doing well it can make a big difference."

James is just one young player to have thrived at the Liberty Stadium this season.

Potter's role in it all hasn't been lost on Giggs, who heaped praise on the Englishman - before suggesting that Cardiff need to do more if they are to bring through their own crop of talented homegrown players.

Speaking about the job done by Potter, Giggs said: "He's doing a really good job in a tough league. It's ridiculous how close that league is with ten teams more or less at the top.

"It's never easy when a club goes down."He's doing a great job but what has been missing which helped Swansea when they were doing really well at the start is Welsh players. They had Ben Davies, Joe Allen. Now they have got that back.


"Hopefully they are getting their heart and soul back because I think it's important to have local players.

"We just need Cardiff to start doing that now!"

While such comments were made firmly tongue-in-cheek, there is perhaps a serious point to be made.

The latest 25-man squad for the games against Denmark and Ireland does not include a single player based in the Welsh capital, with Jazz Richards currently the club's only senior player eligible to play for Wales.


Expanding the talent pool has been a key priority for Giggs, who revealed the amount of work that went in to scouting out surprise call-up James Lawrence.

The inclusion of the 26-year-old Anderlecht defender is arguably the biggest talking point of Giggs's latest squad, having previously never played international football for anyone at any level.

His inclusion has been made all the more surprising given that he appears to have been preferred ahead of Swansea defender Rodon, another young talent that has shone at the Liberty Stadium this term.

And Giggs has hinted Lawrence, who qualifies for Wales through his grandmother, could be the first of many surprise names to be called up over the next few international breaks.

Asked whether there were any other left-field names on his radar, Giggs added: "There's a few. I can't really name them.

"There's a few I need to see who are talented players. You will just have to wait and see."

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They're only playing a lot of youngsters as a cost cutting measure. Yes, They've done well to step up to the first team but they're not going to get them promoted.

I agree we could do better, but if the young ones aren't up to it, they're just not. Hopefully that will change soon with all he changes made in the last few years.

Fake welsh shagging brothers wife 4 fingered tw*t.

Never will I support anything that disgrace has to do with

We haven’t got the pull for the youngsters of Manchester United where the youngsters can just ‘step’ into the 1st team, maybe he needs to go back and look at his own club Salford before making stupid comments

We haven’t got the pull for the youngsters of Manchester United where the youngsters can just ‘step’ into the 1st team, maybe he needs to go back and look at his own club Salford before making stupid comments

They are not stupid comments. Our youth system has been pretty baron for nearly a decade. Under Sam Hammam we had a vibrant youth system which produced 4 members of the Welsh side which reached the Semi-Finals of Euro 16. Since he left the academy has been badly under funded and we have produced hardly anyone of note, even Joe Ralls was not originally a product of the academy.

We should take a leaf out of Swansea's book and invest properly in our youth system and start producing Aaron Ramsey type players again.

We haven’t got the pull for the youngsters of Manchester United where the youngsters can just ‘step’ into the 1st team, maybe he needs to go back and look at his own club Salford before making stupid comments

They are not stupid comments. Our youth system has been pretty baron for nearly a decade. Under Sam Hammam we had a vibrant youth system which produced 4 members of the Welsh side which reached the Semi-Finals of Euro 16. Since he left the academy has been badly under funded and we have produced hardly anyone of note, even Joe Ralls was not originally a product of the academy.

We should take a leaf out of Swansea's book and invest properly in our youth system and start producing Aaron Ramsey type players again.

Swansea youngsters are not all home grown for past 2 yrs they have been buying under 23 players from other clubs because they were cost cutting.

We haven’t got the pull for the youngsters of Manchester United where the youngsters can just ‘step’ into the 1st team, maybe he needs to go back and look at his own club Salford before making stupid comments

They are not stupid comments. Our youth system has been pretty baron for nearly a decade. Under Sam Hammam we had a vibrant youth system which produced 4 members of the Welsh side which reached the Semi-Finals of Euro 16. Since he left the academy has been badly under funded and we have produced hardly anyone of note, even Joe Ralls was not originally a product of the academy.

We should take a leaf out of Swansea's book and invest properly in our youth system and start producing Aaron Ramsey type players again.

That’s what the club is doing, they have taken a look at Burnley’s setup and are going along those lines, hence the new training centre, there are things in motion to develop the players, we have some decent talent in the academy and in the reserves, they need 1st team competition league football to develop further and they will only get that with successful loan spells, can’t see us getting talent such as Rambo through our academy again for a long time as they’re all picked up by the top clubs, for example Barcelona have teams for U6 right up to their 1st team with youngsters they brought in, we can’t compete with the likes of the big named clubs to get the players in, we are doing it with what we have

In the first eight years of this decade we had Ramsey, Ledley, Gunter, Collins and Earnshaw come through the youth system. Four of those players were in the Welsh squad that got to the Euro semis. In the ten years since then?

Giggs has a very valid point.

He’s 100% right

He's correct, no problem with anything he said as far as i'm concerned

We want home grown players
A) that are good enough
B) Given a chance

Any criticism from the Welsh Manager is welcome in my eyes, it's what the fans want

giggs is correct it’s embarrassing

Fake welsh shagging brothers wife 4 fingered tw*t.

Never will I support anything that disgrace has to do with

have to ask...how many fingers do you think is the norm.?

Fake welsh shagging brothers wife 4 fingered tw*t.

Never will I support anything that disgrace has to do with

have to ask...how many fingers do you think is the norm.?

Not a huge fan of Giggs, but he’s right here.

Fake welsh shagging brothers wife 4 fingered tw*t.

Never will I support anything that disgrace has to do with

First bit?

second bit...

Sorry but Giggs is right here. We are in the Prem and our only Welsh international is Jizz. And he isn’t playing regular either. We are not tapping into the local talent and even though the Jacks are in the Championship they have more Wales internationals than us. Not Giggs biggest fan but I don’t see it as a dig just a fact.

Any young player of any ability of any nationality gets sucked away from their home regions/countries by Man City/Man Utd /Chelsea and all of the other big money clubs by offering them wads of cash. The remnants get left with Swansea/Cardiff (or wherever). A few of those left will make it into a small international team like Wales, who will be back to their usual third rate level once Bale and Ramsey give up international football .

I’ve just re-read that and it’s a bit confused. What I’m trying to say is the best youngsters in Europe (and the world) get lured away from their local clubs by money.

Not a fan of Giggs, but he's spot on for once.

its only cause they r in the championship they r playing if they had stayed up prob only roberts would be playing

jack arses

Dont see why anyone on giggs back here because hes 100percent right. We dont produce any talent any more and we should be really. Plenty of clubs at all levels do it not just swansea, other championship and premiership teams are doing it but we are not. Hopefully this will change soon bellers talks highly of the younger age groups coming through

In the first eight years of this decade we had Ramsey, Ledley, Gunter, Collins and Earnshaw come through the youth system. Four of those players were in the Welsh squad that got to the Euro semis. In the ten years since then?

Giggs has a very valid point.

Wouldn't Collins and Gabbidon also fit into that list?

NUBSSY
Collins is there in the centre back position,
What is bellamy and doing with these youngsters giggs and team at the moment keep pulling welsh rabbits out of a hat, youngsters are popping up from everywhere i know cardiff is becoming more anglosized unfortunately but surely there are some young lads from cardiff coming through the ranks.