Three Lions Squad Depth Labelled 'Ridiculous' - Welsh Manager Craig Bellamy
- Published
International friendly: Wales vs England
Venue: London's Wembley, the capital Date: October 9th Kick-off: 19:45 BST
The Wales head coach says England's squad depth is remarkable that a boxing promoter wouldn't pair them against the Welsh team.
The Welsh squad face their neighbors in a non-competitive match at Wembley on this Thursday before their important qualifying match against Belgium next Monday.
National team coach Thomas Tuchel has omitted the likes of Jude Bellingham, Foden and Grealish from his squad for the Wales friendly and their World Cup qualifier against Latvia.
"England have a ridiculous squad, like France," the coach said.
"They have a market valuation of £1.4bn, ours is £170m. If you were a boxing promoter, you wouldn't put us together. That wouldn't be permitted."
Bellamy explains making sure Wales can compete with the star-studded rivals is a "driving force".
Bellamy continued: "Our team don't go off market prices, but the reality is they have more than a single lineup. They have multiple 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 recently and there are two dozen others to choose from! They've got over sixty footballers. I wish Wales to be stacked similarly."
The neighbouring countries most recently met at the 2022 tournament in the Middle East, when the English emerged as easy victors in a fixture before Gareth Southgate's side made it to the quarter-finals.
Southgate's successor is Thomas Tuchel, a Champions League and world club winner at the London club who has claimed domestic titles in France and his home country.
Bellamy was formerly an coach at the Belgian side and Burnley to Vincent Kompany, who replaced him at Bayern Munich.
"He's an incredible coach - his record is proven," he added.
"I possess a degree of understanding because the club he left I am familiar with people who have gone in there. I gain a bit of an insight there of how he works and it's very impressive. "
"His strategic planning is elite and I wanted to be up against such a challenge - see how you're going to adapt because he will. I can learn from it. I'd love to get to such heights."
Wales Squad List
Goalkeepers: Darlow (Leeds United), Adam Davies (Sheffield United), King (the Toffees).
Defenders: Cabango (Swansea City), Jay Dasilva (Coventry), B. Davies (Spurs), Ronan Kpakio (Cardiff City), Lawlor (Cardiff), Mepham (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Rodon (Leeds United), Neco Williams (Nottingham Forest).
Midfielders: Ethan Ampadu (Leeds United), Brooks (the Cherries), Jordan James (Leicester City - on loan from Rennes), Sheehan (Bolton), Sorba Thomas (Stoke City), Harry Wilson (the Cottagers), Joel Colwill (Cardiff City), Rubin Colwill (Cardiff City).
Attackers: Nathan Broadhead (Wrexham), Liam Cullen (Swansea City), Mark Harris (Oxford United), Lewis Koumas (Birmingham - loaned by Liverpool), Brennan Johnson (Spurs), Kieffer Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff).
