Both players were called into John Toshack's squad on Monday ahead of tonight's friendly against Georgia at the Liberty Stadium.<\/p>\n
Collins call up was a reward for his impressive early season performances whilst Allen is classed as one of Wales' brightest young prospects although his first team opportunities at Swansea have been limited.<\/p>\n
But that aside Martinez was convinced that both players call ups were deserved and he told the Evening Post: "It's a great reward for both Matty and Joe to be asked to join up with Wales<\/p>\n
"And it's a great compliment for us that we now have four players involved with the senior squad as well as Shaun MacDonald playing a massive role for the Wales Under-21 side.<\/p>\n
"John Toshack heard good reports of Matty after Charlton and came to see him himself when we played Nottingham Forest<\/p>\n
"I think he decided (to call him up) more or less straightaway.<\/p>\n
"It's a great step for Matty after just two official games at right-back and I'm sure he will play many, many games for Wales in the years to come.<\/p>\n
"What's happened to Matty shows you just how quickly things can change in football.<\/p>\n
"He had to work really hard behind the scenes to learn a new position and to make sure he would be ready when the chance came.<\/p>\n
"He has done that now and his challenge with two experienced players in the same position will only improve him.<\/p>\n
"The ban (Allen is suspended for the Under 21 game this week) means this is a great opportunity for Joe to join the senior squad and to see how he reacts," Martinez said.<\/p>\n
"Joe is a player who is progressing really well.<\/p>\n
"The way he developed last year was amazing. He played 20 first-team games, which is quite an achievement for someone of his age at a club which won the league.<\/p>\n
"He is not going to make up the numbers in the Welsh squad. He is going to set the standards and I'm sure he'll surprise some of the senior boys."<\/p>\n
The words of Roberto were echoed by John Toshack who added "They've come in to help out with the training and they've done well, the training was very impressive.<\/p>\n
"They've worked well, slipped in there and you wouldn't really notice any difference with them.<\/p>\n
"Brian Flynn's always been impressed with Joe Allen when he's been with the under-21s and he's unlucky not to be involved in their match tomorrow."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both players were called into John Toshack's squad on Monday ahead of tonight's friendly against Georgia at the Liberty Stadium. Collins call up was a reward for his impressive early season performances whilst Allen is classed as one of Wales' brightest young prospects although his first team opportunities at Swansea have been limited. But that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}