England Squad Depth Called 'Absurd' - Wales Manager Bellamy

• Published 60 minutes ago

Friendly match: Wales vs England

Venue: Wembley Stadium, the capital Date: Thursday, 9 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST

The Wales head coach says England's squad depth is so impressive that a boxing promoter wouldn't match them with the Welsh team.

The Welsh squad meet their neighbors in a friendly at Wembley on this Thursday before their crucial qualifying match against the Belgians next the following week.

England manager Tuchel has left the such as Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish from his squad for the Wales friendly and their qualifying game against the Latvian team.

"England have a incredible squad, similar to France," the coach said.

"England have a market valuation of 1.4 billion pounds, ours is £170m. Were you a fight promoter, you would not match us up. That wouldn't be permitted."

He explains making sure 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 simple fact is England have more than one team. They possess multiple and the French and others are similarly stacked. England have loads of top talents and that's a fact."

"A defender was ruled out with injury the recently and there are 24 more to go! They've got over sixty footballers. I wish Wales to be stacked like them."

These two nations most recently met at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when the English emerged as comfortable victors in a group match before Gareth Southgate's side reached the last eight.

Southgate's successor is Thomas Tuchel, a European and world club champion at Chelsea who has claimed league championships in France and his native Germany.

Bellamy was formerly an assistant at the Belgian side and the English club to Kompany, who replaced him at Bayern Munich.

"Tuchel's an incredible manager - his record is proven," Bellamy noted.

"I have some sort of insight because the club he left I know people who have gone in there. I get a glimpse from that of his methods and it's very impressive. "

"His strategic planning is elite and I aimed to be up against that - see how you're going to adapt because he adapts too. I will get to learn from that. I aspire to reach that level."

Keepers: Darlow (Leeds United), Adam Davies (Sheffield United), Tom King (the Toffees).

Backline: Cabango (Swansea), Jay Dasilva (Coventry City), B. Davies (Spurs), Ronan Kpakio (Cardiff City), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff City), Chris Mepham (West Brom), Joe Rodon (Leeds United), Neco Williams (Forest).

Midfield: Ethan Ampadu (Leeds United), David Brooks (Bournemouth), J. James (Leicester City - on loan from Stade Rennais), Josh Sheehan (Bolton Wanderers), Sorba Thomas (Stoke City), Harry Wilson (the Cottagers), Joel Colwill (Cardiff), Rubin Colwill (Cardiff).

Attackers: Nathan Broadhead (Wrexham), Liam Cullen (Swansea), Harris (Oxford), Lewis Koumas (Birmingham City - on loan from Liverpool), Brennan Johnson (Tottenham Hotspur), Moore (Wrexham), Isaak Davies (Cardiff).