‘Team GB? They’ll cherry pick Bale and Rambo, it might as well be team England’

CHRIS COLEMAN has hit out at plans to send a Team GB football side to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and insists that Wales will fight to protect their prize assets.

The Chief Executives of the British Olympic Association and UK Sport have both called for talks between the home nations, while new England manager Sam Allardyce said it was a ‘great shame’ that a place in Rio was turned down.

However, Coleman thinks the talk is an unnecessary distraction and would place an unfair burden on his best players.

He said: “Why should we? We know they’re only going to take one or two of ours, it might as well be the England Olympic team.

“They’ll cherry pick Bale or Rambo, why should we give them up? Water them down, take the best out of them and then throw them back to us when you’re finished with them. I don’t think that’s fair.”

Coleman also claimed it would harm England, pointing out that his experience at Euro 2016 had shown the rigours major tournaments bring to already over-played footballers.

He said: “I just think our boys have a lot of football, what they don’t need is more. It’s not just the football, it’s the training, being in camp, being away every day, there’s more pressure and preparation, it’s the last thing our top players need. I’m talking about the England players as well, I don’t think they need it, that’s why our stance hasn’t changed.

“Why would we even attempt to mess up what we’ve got? For what? It’s just more games that they don’t need. If they’re going to take two of our best players which they would do, I don’t want to jeopardise what we’ve got. We don’t owe anything to anyone.”

The Olympics followed one of the greatest summers in the history of Welsh football, and the manager is adamant that the progress made must not be jeopardised at any cost.

He said: “One thing we’ve got surrounding us at the minute, and you can smell it on us, is they players we’ve got, there’s an identity. They put the jersey on and they wear it with pride.

“That’s all our nation’s ever wanted. Of course they want success, but they want to see a team that when they go on the pitch they’re emptying for the jersey, for the badge on the honour, and that’s what we’ve got.

“There’s no need to mess about with that.”

The Wales boss has also opened up on the prolonged process that saw Hull City attempt to install him as their new manager after Steve Bruce walked out just weeks before the new Premier League season.

Hull made an approach to the FAW, which was turned down, amid reports that he was open to speaking to the Humberside outfit.

Coleman has confirmed that he ‘looked sideways’ but added there was never any serious possibility of him making the switch.

He said: “It was a Premier League club, and everyone wants to work in the Premier League. I’m a human being and if you get interest for a club that’s in what is deemed as the best league in the world... but I want to go to a World Cup. To leave now, I don’t think it would sit very well, forget anyone else it wouldn’t sit very well with me, so it wasn’t the right time.

“I think everybody is under the impression that everyone wants to work in the Premier League. I want to work at the top level like everyone