Craig Bellamy suggested a boxing promoter would not pit Wales against England owing to the gulf between the squads and said his side must be at “full gas” if they are to compete at Wembley on Thursday.
Wales head along the M4 for the friendly before returning to Cardiff to host Belgium in a crucial World Cup qualifier next Monday. The Wales manager said he had enjoyed analysing Thomas Tuchel’s side in preparation.
“They have a ridiculous squad,” Bellamy said. “They have a transfer market value of £1.4bn, ours is £170m. If you were a boxing promoter you wouldn’t put us together – it wouldn’t be allowed.
“That’s rough – but are our players undervalued or their players overvalued? There’s a context to that as well. We don’t go off values, but the simple fact is they don’t just have one team. They have two, three, four and France and others have the same.
“They have a player who cost £100m in midfield [Declan Rice], players worth £60m, £80m. It’s really top and that’s why you want to be up against these boys. I’m not saying this is going to be the case but when I was at Burnley it was the best. You never learn more than when you get your ass kicked.”
Bellamy believes it is “a matter of time” before England end their quest to win another major tournament after near-misses at the delayed Euro 2020 and Euro 2024. Wales have not played England since a comprehensive 3-0 group-stage defeat at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, their seventh defeat in a row by England.
Bellamy cherrypicked England as opponents because he is keen to test his team against higher-ranked nations and said his relationship with John McDermott, the Football Association’s technical director, helped secure the friendly. Wales have been allocated around 7,500 tickets.
“We just can’t compete with these teams if we are not full gas,” Bellamy said. “For us, it’s like, great, let’s try to be full gas all the time so that we only live with full gas.”
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Cardiff’s Rubin Colwill has joined his younger brother Joel in the squad after replacing the injured Aaron Ramsey, who has not played for his country since September 2024 and joined the Mexico City side Pumas UNAM in July. Isaak Davies, another Cardiff player, has replaced Daniel James, who sustained an ankle injury in training with Leeds.
