England Team Depth Labelled 'Absurd' - Wales Boss Craig Bellamy
- Published
International friendly: Wales vs England
Venue: Wembley Stadium, London Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 7:45 PM BST
The Wales head coach states the English squad depth is remarkable that a boxing promoter wouldn't pair them with the Welsh team.
The Welsh squad meet their neighbors in a friendly at the national stadium on Thursday before their crucial World Cup qualifier against the Belgians next the following week.
England manager Tuchel has left the such as Jude Bellingham, Foden and Grealish out of his squad for the match against Wales and their World Cup qualifier against the Latvian team.
"The English have a incredible team, similar to France," the coach remarked.
"They have a market valuation of 1.4 billion pounds, ours is £170m. If you were a fight promoter, you wouldn't put us together. It wouldn't be allowed."
He says ensuring Wales can compete with the star-studded opponents is a "driving force".
Bellamy continued: "We don't go off values, but the simple fact is England don't just have a single lineup. They possess two, three, four and the French and others have the same level. They have loads of great players and that's a fact."
"A defender went out injured the recently and there are two dozen others to go! They have 60-odd footballers. I'd love Wales to be well-equipped like them."
The neighbouring countries last faced each other at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when the English emerged as easy victors in a group match before the previous England team made it to the quarter-finals.
The new manager is Tuchel, a European and Fifa Club World Cup winner at Chelsea who has won league championships in France and his native Germany.
Bellamy was formerly an coach at Anderlecht and the English club to Kompany, who replaced him at Bayern Munich.
"Tuchel's an incredible coach - his achievements speak for themselves," he added.
"I have a degree of insight because the club he left I am familiar with people who have joined. I get a bit of an insight there of how he works and it's very impressive. "
"His strategic planning is elite and I aimed to be facing that - see how we adjust because he will. I will get to learn from that. I aspire to get to that level."
Wales Squad List
Keepers: Karl Darlow (Leeds United), Davies (Sheffield Utd), Tom King (Everton).
Backline: Ben Cabango (Swansea City), Dasilva (Coventry City), Ben Davies (Spurs), Kpakio (Cardiff City), Lawlor (Cardiff City), Mepham (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Rodon (Leeds), Neco Williams (Forest).
Midfielders: Ethan Ampadu (Leeds), David Brooks (the Cherries), J. James (Leicester City - on loan from Rennes), Josh Sheehan (Bolton Wanderers), Sorba Thomas (Stoke), H. Wilson (Fulham), J. Colwill (Cardiff), R. Colwill (Cardiff).
Attackers: Nathan Broadhead (Wrexham), Liam Cullen (Swansea), Mark Harris (Oxford), Lewis Koumas (Birmingham - on loan from the Reds), Brennan Johnson (Spurs), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), I. Davies (Cardiff City).
