England Team Depth Called 'Ridiculous' - Wales Manager Craig Bellamy
- Published
International friendly: Wales vs England
Venue: London's Wembley, London Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 7:45 PM BST
The Wales head coach states the English player pool is remarkable that a boxing promoter wouldn't match them against his Wales side.
Bellamy's men meet their neighbors in a friendly at the national stadium on this Thursday before their crucial qualifying match against Belgium next the following week.
England manager Tuchel has left the such as Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish out of his squad for the Wales friendly and their qualifying game against the Latvian team.
"England have a ridiculous team, like the French," Bellamy remarked.
"England have a transfer market value of 1.4 billion pounds, Wales' is £170m. Were you a boxing promoter, you wouldn't match us up. It wouldn't be allowed."
He says ensuring Wales can face the star-studded rivals is a "driving force".
The Wales head coach added: "Our team don't go off values, but the reality is England have more than one team. They possess multiple and France and others are similarly stacked. England have many top talents and that's a fact."
"One right-back went out injured the other day and there's only two dozen others to choose from! They have over sixty players. I wish us to be stacked like them."
These two nations last faced each other at the 2022 tournament in Qatar, when the English ran out easy victors in a fixture before the previous England team made it to the last eight.
The new manager is Thomas Tuchel, a Champions League and world club winner at Chelsea who has won league championships in Ligue 1 and his native Germany.
The Welsh boss was previously an coach at the Belgian side and Burnley to Vincent Kompany, who replaced Tuchel at Bayern Munich.
"He's an outstanding manager - his record is proven," he noted.
"I have a degree of understanding because the club he left I know individuals who have gone in there. I get a bit of an insight there of how he works and it's very impressive. "
"His tactical detail is top level and I wanted to be up against such a challenge - see how we adjust because he will. I can learn from it. I'd love to get to such heights."
Welsh Squad List
Keepers: Darlow (Leeds United), Adam Davies (Sheffield Utd), King (the Toffees).
Defenders: Ben Cabango (Swansea), Jay Dasilva (Coventry), Ben Davies (Spurs), Kpakio (Cardiff), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff), Chris Mepham (West Brom), Rodon (Leeds), Williams (Forest).
Midfielders: Ethan Ampadu (Leeds), David Brooks (the Cherries), Jordan James (Leicester - on loan from Rennes), Josh Sheehan (Bolton), Thomas (Stoke City), H. Wilson (the Cottagers), Joel Colwill (Cardiff), R. Colwill (Cardiff City).
Forwards: Broadhead (the Red Dragons), Liam Cullen (Swansea), Mark Harris (Oxford United), Lewis Koumas (Birmingham City - on loan from Liverpool), Johnson (Tottenham Hotspur), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff City).
