Three Lions Team Strength Called 'Absurd' - Wales Boss Craig Bellamy
- Published
International friendly: England v Wales
Venue: London's Wembley, the capital Date: October 9th Kick-off: 19:45 BST
The Wales head coach says the English player pool is remarkable that matchmakers wouldn't pair them with his Wales side.
Bellamy's men meet England in a friendly at the national stadium on Thursday before their important World Cup qualifier against the Belgians next Monday.
National team coach Thomas Tuchel has omitted the likes of Bellingham, Phil Foden and Grealish from his selection for the Wales friendly and their qualifying game against the Latvian team.
"The English have a incredible squad, similar to France," the coach remarked.
"They have a transfer market value of 1.4 billion pounds, ours is £170m. If you were a boxing promoter, you wouldn't put us together. That wouldn't be permitted."
He says ensuring the Welsh team can compete with the talented rivals is a "key motivation".
The Wales head coach continued: "We don't go off values, but the reality is England have more than one team. They possess multiple and the French and other nations are similarly stacked. England have loads of top talents and that's the honest truth."
"A defender went out with injury the recently and there's only 24 more to go! They have 60-odd footballers. I wish us to be stacked similarly."
These two nations last faced each other at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when England ran out easy 3-0 winners in a fixture before Gareth Southgate's side reached the quarter-finals.
The new manager is Tuchel, a Champions League and world club winner at Chelsea who has claimed league championships in Ligue 1 and his native Germany.
Bellamy was previously an assistant at the Belgian side and the English club to Vincent Kompany, who replaced him at Bayern Munich.
"Tuchel's an outstanding coach - his record speak for themselves," Bellamy added.
"I have a degree of understanding because the team he departed I am familiar with people who have gone in there. I gain a glimpse there of his methods and it's very impressive. "
"His strategic planning is elite and I aimed to be up against that - see how we adjust because he will. I will get to learn from it. I aspire to get to that level."
Wales Squad List
Keepers: Karl Darlow (Leeds United), Adam Davies (Sheffield United), Tom King (Everton).
Defenders: Cabango (Swansea), Dasilva (Coventry City), Ben Davies (Spurs), Ronan Kpakio (Cardiff), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff City), Chris Mepham (West Brom), Joe Rodon (Leeds United), Williams (Forest).
Midfielders: Ethan Ampadu (Leeds United), David Brooks (Bournemouth), J. James (Leicester - on loan from Rennes), Josh Sheehan (Bolton Wanderers), Thomas (Stoke City), H. Wilson (the Cottagers), Joel Colwill (Cardiff City), R. Colwill (Cardiff).
Attackers: Broadhead (Wrexham), Liam Cullen (Swansea City), Mark Harris (Oxford United), Lewis Koumas (Birmingham - loaned by the Reds), Brennan Johnson (Spurs), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff).
