Wales boss Gemma Grainger excited by young prospects coming through
Wales Women Manager Gemma Grainger leads training Wales Women training session at The Vale Resort on the 6th April 2021. Lewis Mitchell/YCPD
Wales manager Gemma Grainger has expressed her excitement at the number of talented young players coming through the international setup.
Grainger was appointed manager of the Welsh women’s national team in March and began her tenure with a friendly against Canada last week.
Despite falling to a 3-0 defeat, 13 players in the matchday squad were under the age of 23, with Liverpool midfielder Ceri Holland making her international debut.
Grainger instisted that the young prospects coming through will all have a part to play in the plan for qualification for a major tournament.
“It’s so exciting,” she stressed. “For me, I’m planning for the next four years but not only next four years, we’re looking to build something here for the next four years, the next six years, the nest eight years and so on.
“These players are going to be a huge part of this team, from this day and moving forward. It’s not just about that planning for the next four years, it’s my job to make sure that players are coming through into this team and that continues and that the pipeline of players is strong.
“We want to qualify for a major tournament in the next four years, but we don’t just want to do that once.
“We want to have a pipeline of players that this team are regularly competing to qualify.”
Wales are back in action on Tuesday as they host Denmark at the Cardiff City Stadium, who are currently ranked 14thin the world.
With Grainger expected to make changes from the side that fell to defeat against Canada, the Wales boss stressed the value of international friendlies for the side’s development.
“They’re so important. For me, each individual needs to take what they need out of these friendlies and that’s for staff and players, that’s been my message from day one, take what you need.
“A lot of the conversations I had with the younger players are to learn what they can from our more senior players.
“We have some world class senior players in this team and for the younger players, if I were them, my advice to them would be to learn as much as they can because that will be them in a few years time.
“It will be their job to do the same for the next generation coming through and the more we can use that as a model, the more successful the team will be.”
(Featured Image: Lewis Mitchell)
