England Team Strength Called 'Absurd' - Wales Manager Bellamy
- Published
Friendly match: Wales vs England
Venue: London's Wembley, the capital Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 7:45 PM BST
Craig Bellamy says England's player pool is so impressive that matchmakers wouldn't pair them against the Welsh team.
The Welsh squad meet England in a friendly at Wembley on this Thursday before their crucial qualifying match against the Belgians next Monday.
England manager Tuchel has left the likes of Bellingham, Foden and Jack Grealish from his selection for the match against Wales and their World Cup qualifier against Latvia.
"England have a ridiculous squad, like France," Bellamy said.
"England have a market valuation of £1.4bn, ours is 170 million. Were you a boxing promoter, you would not match us up. That wouldn't be permitted."
He says ensuring the Welsh team can compete with the star-studded opponents is a "driving force".
The Wales head coach continued: "We do not rely on values, but the simple fact is they don't just have one team. They have multiple and France and others are similarly stacked. They have loads of top talents and that's the honest truth."
"One right-back went out with injury the other day and there are two dozen others to choose from! They've got over sixty players. I wish Wales to be stacked similarly."
The neighbouring countries most recently met at the 2022 tournament in the Middle East, when England ran out comfortable victors in a fixture before the previous England team made it to the quarter-finals.
Southgate's successor is Thomas Tuchel, a European and Fifa Club World Cup champion at the London club who has claimed domestic titles in Ligue 1 and his native Germany.
The Welsh boss was previously an assistant at the Belgian side and the English club to Kompany, who replaced Tuchel at Bayern Munich.
"Tuchel's an outstanding coach - his achievements is proven," Bellamy noted.
"I possess a degree of understanding because the club he left I am familiar with people who have gone in there. I gain a bit of an insight there of how he works and it's remarkable. "
"His strategic planning is elite and I wanted to be up against that - observe how we adjust because he adapts too. I will get to learn from that. I aspire to get to such heights."
Wales Squad List
Keepers: Darlow (Leeds United), Davies (Sheffield United), Tom King (the Toffees).
Defenders: Ben Cabango (Swansea), Dasilva (Coventry), B. Davies (Spurs), Ronan Kpakio (Cardiff), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff), Chris Mepham (West Brom), Joe Rodon (Leeds), Neco Williams (Nottingham Forest).
Midfield: Ampadu (Leeds), David Brooks (Bournemouth), Jordan James (Leicester City - on loan from Stade Rennais), Josh Sheehan (Bolton), Thomas (Stoke City), H. Wilson (Fulham), Joel Colwill (Cardiff), R. Colwill (Cardiff).
Attackers: Nathan Broadhead (the Red Dragons), Cullen (Swansea City), Mark Harris (Oxford), Koumas (Birmingham - loaned by Liverpool), Johnson (Tottenham Hotspur), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff City).
