England Team Strength Labelled 'Ridiculous' - Welsh Boss Bellamy
- Published
Friendly match: England v Wales
Venue: London's Wembley, London Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST
The Wales head coach states the English player pool is so impressive that a boxing promoter would not match them with his Wales side.
The Welsh squad face England in a non-competitive match at Wembley on this Thursday before their crucial World Cup qualifier against the Belgians next the following week.
England manager Thomas Tuchel has omitted the likes of Jude Bellingham, Foden and Jack Grealish out of his selection for the Wales friendly and their World Cup qualifier against the Latvian team.
"England have a ridiculous team, similar to the French," Bellamy remarked.
"They have a market valuation of £1.4bn, ours is 170 million. If you were a fight promoter, you would not match us up. It wouldn't be allowed."
Bellamy explains making sure Wales can face the star-studded opponents is a "key motivation".
The Wales head coach continued: "We do not rely on market prices, but the simple fact is England don't just have one team. They possess multiple and France and other nations are similarly stacked. England have loads of top talents and that's a fact."
"One right-back was ruled out with injury the recently and there's only 24 more to choose from! They've got 60-odd footballers. I wish Wales to be stacked similarly."
These two nations most recently met at the 2022 tournament in the Middle East, when England emerged as comfortable 3-0 winners in a fixture before the previous England team reached the quarter-finals.
The new manager is Thomas Tuchel, a European and world club winner at Chelsea who has won domestic titles in Ligue 1 and his home country.
The Welsh boss was previously an assistant at the Belgian side and the English club to Kompany, who succeeded him at the German giants.
"He's an incredible manager - his achievements speak for themselves," he noted.
"I have a degree of insight because the club he left I am familiar with people who have joined. I gain a bit of an insight from that of his methods and it's very impressive. "
"His strategic planning is top level and I aimed to be facing such a challenge - see how you're going to adapt because he will. I will get to learn from that. I aspire to get to such heights."
Welsh Squad List
Goalkeepers: Darlow (Leeds), Adam Davies (Sheffield United), King (Everton).
Defenders: Cabango (Swansea City), Dasilva (Coventry City), B. Davies (Tottenham Hotspur), Kpakio (Cardiff), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff), Mepham (West Brom), Rodon (Leeds), Neco Williams (Forest).
Midfield: Ethan Ampadu (Leeds United), David Brooks (Bournemouth), Jordan James (Leicester City - loaned by Rennes), Josh Sheehan (Bolton), Thomas (Stoke City), Harry Wilson (Fulham), Joel Colwill (Cardiff City), R. Colwill (Cardiff).
Attackers: Broadhead (the Red Dragons), Liam Cullen (Swansea), Harris (Oxford United), Koumas (Birmingham City - on loan from the Reds), Brennan Johnson (Spurs), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff City).