England Team Strength Called 'Ridiculous' - Welsh Boss Craig 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 remarkable that matchmakers would not pair them with his Wales side.
The Welsh squad face their neighbors in a friendly at Wembley on Thursday before their crucial qualifying match against the Belgians next the following week.
England manager Tuchel has omitted the likes of Jude Bellingham, Foden and Jack Grealish out of his squad for the Wales friendly and their World Cup qualifier against Latvia.
"England have a ridiculous team, like France," the coach said.
"They have a transfer market value of £1.4bn, Wales' is £170m. If you were a boxing promoter, you wouldn't match us up. That wouldn't be permitted."
He explains making sure Wales can face the talented rivals is a "driving force".
Bellamy continued: "We don't go off values, but the reality is they don't just have one team. They possess two, three, four and France and other nations are similarly stacked. England have loads of great players and that's the honest truth."
"One right-back went out injured the other day and there's only two dozen others to go! They've got over sixty players. I'd love Wales to be stacked like them."
These two nations last faced each other at the 2022 tournament in the Middle East, when England emerged as easy 3-0 winners in a group match before Gareth Southgate's side made it to the last eight.
Southgate's successor is Thomas Tuchel, a European and Fifa Club World Cup winner at the London club who has claimed domestic titles in France and his home country.
Bellamy was previously an coach at the Belgian side and the English club to Kompany, who replaced him at the German giants.
"He's an outstanding coach - his achievements speak for themselves," he noted.
"I have some sort of insight because the club he left I know individuals who have gone in there. I gain a bit of an insight from that of how he works and it's very impressive. "
"His strategic planning is elite and I wanted to be up against such a challenge - observe how we adjust because he will. I will get to learn from it. I aspire to get to such heights."
Wales Squad List
Goalkeepers: Karl Darlow (Leeds), Davies (Sheffield Utd), Tom King (Everton).
Defenders: Cabango (Swansea), Dasilva (Coventry City), B. Davies (Spurs), Kpakio (Cardiff), Lawlor (Cardiff City), Mepham (West Brom), Rodon (Leeds), Neco Williams (Forest).
Midfield: Ampadu (Leeds), David Brooks (Bournemouth), J. James (Leicester City - on loan from Stade Rennais), Sheehan (Bolton Wanderers), Thomas (Stoke City), Harry Wilson (Fulham), Joel Colwill (Cardiff), R. Colwill (Cardiff).
Attackers: Nathan Broadhead (Wrexham), Liam Cullen (Swansea), Mark Harris (Oxford United), Koumas (Birmingham - loaned by Liverpool), Johnson (Spurs), Moore (Wrexham), I. Davies (Cardiff City).
