England Squad Depth Labelled 'Ridiculous' - Welsh Manager Craig Bellamy
- Published
Friendly match: Wales vs England
Venue: London's Wembley, London Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST
The Wales head coach states England's player pool is remarkable that matchmakers wouldn't match them against his Wales side.
Bellamy's men face England in a non-competitive match at Wembley on this Thursday before their important World Cup qualifier against Belgium next the following week.
England manager Tuchel has left the likes of Bellingham, Phil Foden and Grealish out of his selection for the Wales friendly and their qualifying game against Latvia.
"England have a ridiculous team, like France," the coach remarked.
"England have a market valuation of £1.4bn, ours is 170 million. If you were a fight promoter, you wouldn't match us up. It wouldn't be allowed."
Bellamy says ensuring the Welsh team can face the talented rivals is a "key motivation".
The Wales head coach added: "Our team do not rely on market prices, but the reality is they have more than one team. They have two, three, four and France and other nations are similarly stacked. England have many top talents and that's a fact."
"One right-back went out with injury the other day and there's only two dozen others to choose from! They've got 60-odd footballers. I'd love us to be stacked like them."
These two nations last faced each other at the 2022 tournament in the Middle East, when the English emerged as comfortable 3-0 winners in a group match 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 won domestic titles in France and his home country.
Bellamy was formerly an coach at Anderlecht and Burnley to Vincent Kompany, who succeeded him at Bayern Munich.
"He's an outstanding manager - his achievements speak for themselves," Bellamy noted.
"I possess some sort of understanding because the club he left I know people who have gone in there. I gain a glimpse there of how he works and it's very impressive. "
"His tactical detail is elite and I wanted to be up against that - see how you're going to adapt because he adapts too. I can learn from that. I'd love to get to such heights."
Welsh Squad Selection
Goalkeepers: Darlow (Leeds), Adam Davies (Sheffield Utd), Tom King (the Toffees).
Backline: Ben Cabango (Swansea City), Dasilva (Coventry), B. Davies (Tottenham Hotspur), Kpakio (Cardiff), Lawlor (Cardiff City), Chris Mepham (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Rodon (Leeds United), Neco Williams (Forest).
Midfield: Ampadu (Leeds United), David Brooks (the Cherries), Jordan James (Leicester City - on loan from Rennes), Josh Sheehan (Bolton Wanderers), Sorba Thomas (Stoke City), H. Wilson (the Cottagers), Joel Colwill (Cardiff), Rubin Colwill (Cardiff City).
Forwards: Broadhead (the Red Dragons), Liam Cullen (Swansea City), Mark Harris (Oxford), Koumas (Birmingham City - loaned by the Reds), Brennan Johnson (Spurs), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff City).
