Craig Bellamy has said his Wales players must reset and focus on the World Cup qualifying double-header regardless of whether they finished the season “on a trampoline or with a ball around their neck”. Brennan Johnson and Ben Davies won the Europa League with Tottenham, while Bellamy’s squad for matches against Liechtenstein and Belgium also includes a quartet of Leeds players in Karl Darlow, Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon and Daniel James, who recently celebrated promotion to the Premier League.
Connor Roberts was also promoted with Burnley, but Bellamy is mindful other players experienced disappointment. The Wales manager said: “It’s a positive [to have winners in the squad]. But when I was at a club, anyone who went away for international football and came back it was: ‘Forget about what you’ve just done. Focus on what we’re doing here. Every meeting, every part of football you thought you’d just learned there, forget about it. Get back on track here.’
“It’s the same here with international football. You’ll have a moment where you can congratulate players and I love them being on a high. But I also have to be responsible for players that perhaps haven’t had the season they would have expected. As well as your egos, everything else is forgotten, it’s not going to serve you here. ‘This is what we do, how we work.’
“You’re in a different world, you need to be in our world and they always are. Whether they’re coming in on a trampoline or with a ball round their neck, off we go.”
Bellamy named a 27-man squad for the upcoming qualifiers on Wednesday, with the 18-year-old Cardiff City right-back Ronan Kpakio receiving his first call-up. There is no place for the 18-year-old Manchester United striker Gabriele Biancheri, who will join Canada’s senior squad on Sunday.
Biancheri, whose mother is Canadian and father is Italian, has been capped by Wales at under-19 level and was part of Wales’s recent training camp in Spain, but Bellamy had no plans to bring him into his latest squad. Wales are relaxed about the teenager’s situation and are happy for him to gain further experience.
Wales are without Joe Allen, who retired this month. The 35-year-old reversed his decision to retire from international duty last year, but has stepped away a second time. Wales were staring at a first defeat under Bellamy when Allen’s wayward pass allowed North Macedonia to take a stoppage-time lead in Skopje in March until David Brooks’s 96th-minute equaliser.
“I knew he was going to retire,” Bellamy said. “When we conceded, it was like: ‘There’s no way this is going to be his last touch for us.’ Even if I would delay it after we play this one in June, you are not finishing that way.’”
Bellamy, who had two spells at Liverpool as a player, said he was shaken by the incident at their title parade on Monday that left 65 people injured. “It’s heartbreaking to go to what should be an incredible moment, the most successful club in England with 20 titles, which was so important,” he said.
“I am a Liverpool fan and to see that happen was incredible. I’m probably like everyone else, I’m still trying to absorb it. Maybe I will in the next few weeks, but it is still quite raw for me.”
