WALES manager Chris Coleman has hit back at Arsene Wenger, accusing the Arsenal manager of a lack of respect and taking a ‘cheap shot’ over Aaron Ramsey’s injury.

Ramsey and Gareth Bale will both miss next week’s friendly international against the Netherlands at the Cardiff City Stadium.

But the issue of Ramsey’s unavailability overshadowed today’s press conference to announce the squad for next Friday’s match.

The Arsenal midfielder suffered a hamstring injury playing for the Gunners against Bayern Munich last month – seven days after he had played for Wales against Andorra.

After the injury Wenger appeared to blame Wales for the player’s injury, suggesting that he should have been rested as Coleman’s men had already sealed qualification for Euro 2016.

"The fact that he played against Andorra certainly cost Gareth Bale and him [Ramsey] as well," Wenger said.

And a visibly angry Coleman used today’s press conference to hit back at Wenger.

“I was surprised,” said the Wales boss. “Anybody can call me up. I haven’t got a problem.

“If Wenger has a problem with me or my selection call me up – I would have gladly driven to the Arsenal training ground or wherever his office is.

“Our job is hard enough as managers without us having a little chip at each other.

“And especially a cheap shot, which is exactly what it was.

“Don’t comment on Gareth Bale because he doesn’t figure.

“If he’s got a problem with my selection of one of his players pick the phone up and tell me.

“If I’ve got it wrong I’ll gladly hold my hands up.

“But if I get no correspondence with the club’s medical team that is a green light to play the player.

“It’s plain and simple – there was no correspondence from Wenger or his medical team to mine so for me it’s a green light.”

Coleman also questioned why Wenger spoke to England manager Roy Hodgson about Theo Walcott’s involvement in the final Euro 2016 qualifiers but made no contact with him.

“He called Roy Hodgson up to speak about Theo Walcott, to warn him, but he didn’t call me up. Why? It’s a five-minute phone call,” he said.

“Call me up and say to me ‘be careful with Aaron’ and that’s exactly what I would have done.

“I never got that phone call, nothing.

“Anyway, we send Aaron back fit because he plays against Watford for 90 minutes on the Saturday night and they’re playing three days later against Bayern Munich.

“But after 70 minutes they were 3-0 up [against Watford]. Rest him – he still had two substitutions. I was watching the game.

“Aaron plays 90 minutes and then on the Tuesday he starts and lasts an hour and he pulls up.

“How he can get to the assumption that that was our responsibility I’ve no idea.

“I would have understood it a bit more had he picked the phone up to me and explained to me his disappointment.

“I would have given him my side of the story but you can’t just say something like that because we’ve done nothing wrong.

“I’ve always said it doesn’t serve me well to upset clubs because the players don’t belong to us,” he added.

“We have a certain amount of power where we can say it is international football and we’re calling them up.

“But it’s not in our interest to upset people or to gamble with players. We’ve never done that and we didn’t do that with Aaron.

“We’ve never gambled with Aaron Ramsey – why would we?

“So on the back of us having no warning or correspondence from Arsenal or Wenger to me why wouldn’t we play Aaron Ramsey?

“That was his mistake, not mine or my medical team’s.

“And we’re talking about a game and a half later that he pulls up so don’t point the finger at us.

“It doesn’t help me to burn bridges with clubs or managers but at the same time I’m not going to sit back and let someone put blame on us where we don’t deserve it.

“When someone tries to blame me for their mistake I won’t accept that.

“I’m paying him the respect he paid me, which is not a lot.”

Coleman clearly has a much better relationship with Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez, explaining that Bale did not need to be risked against the Dutch.

“He’s not featured for Madrid since the last camp. He went back, trained for a few days and got injured in training,” said Coleman.

“We’ve had correspondence with Madrid and he’ll probably feature in the next game for them but they want to use this time wisely and carefully to try to get him up to speed.

“I think Gareth also wants to do what’s right and we’ve never taken risks with players – it’s not in our nature.

“It’s not that Madrid said you can’t take him but we’ve got to look at it and it’s a wise thing to do.

“It’s in our interest as well, long term, not to take a chance.

“We understand where Real Madrid are coming from and I think it’s a wise choice by both parties.”

Newport-born defenders James Collins and Chris Gunter are included in the squad, while Walsall forward Tom Bradshaw could make his debut.