Wales manager Rob Page has reassured Bristol Rovers striker Aaron Collins that he remains on his radar after the Gas top scorer was overlooked yet again for the national team.
Collins was named League One Player of the Year after 16 goals and 11 assists in 46 games for the Gas, although his campaign did suffer a downturn from January onwards as his goal production decreased.
Post-World Cup and with the retirements of Gareth Bale, Chris Gunter, Joe Allen and Jonny Williams, Page is looking to pilot Wales into a new era and his 25-man squad for their Euro 2024 qualifiers against Armenia and Turkey next months contains four uncapped players, two of which are in midfield or attacking positions in Fulham’s Luke Harris and Swansea City forward Liam Cullen.
Collins therefore has reason to feel slightly aggrieved that for the fourth time in the last 12 months he’s not been considered good enough or ready for a call-up. But in explaining his various selection decisions to Welsh media, Page has offered the 26-year-old hope for the future by insisting he’ll introduce him when the time is right.
"I’m in contact with the other coaches who have eyes on him every week," Page said. "If we thought he was ready, if there is anybody out there that isn’t in the squad, it’s for a reason. It’s not that we don’t know about him, they’re all in the system.
"When the time is right we’ll introduce him into the squad. We are aware of him and he’s had a great season. We’ll continue to monitor him and when the time is right we’ll introduce him to the group."
Rovers manager Joey Barton has previously indicated that the fact his No10 doesn’t play for a “big club” in League One has potentially hampered his chances of a call-up.
Referencing Nathan Broadhead, who scored eight goals with five assists for promoted Ipswich Town this season and made his international debut in March, and teammate Wes Burns who is now a regular for the Dragons, Barton believes the atmosphere of performing at Portman Road or larger grounds every other week gives scouts greater reassurance players can transfer that to international football.
“I think Wes has done really well at Ipswich, gets into the international scene but not at Fleetwood even though he was probably playing better than he was at Ipswich,” Barton said in March after Collins’ previous omission. “But when people turn up at your stadium, and Portman Road is 25,000 and there’s a big atmosphere, they go, ‘okay, it’s League One but it doesn’t feel like it is’.
“And they turn up at Fleetwood or the Mem and it’s four different-sized stands, eight or nine thousand (fans), and you have a quiet game, it kind of puts a line through you because they go, ‘how are they going to step up into international football?’
“At Portman Road, they wouldn’t put the line through because it’s not such a big jump from this atmosphere to international football.”
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