Jude Bellingham an ‘absolute chop’ but is he a victim of England success? | OneFootball

Why are the media so eager to vilify Jude Bellingham? Is it because England are too good to be truly interesting?

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It’s better when England have a pr***

Thanks goodness there’s now a bona fide prick back in the squad. For a while there wasn’t a lot to genuinely dislike about the England players. Finlay x

Hey Jude, he’s not so bad…

Jude Bellingham doesn’t help himself, or at least his image, with some of his past behaviours, but after watching the game and taking a closer look at his supposed histrionics in the Albania game, it’s clear he’s being set up by the media looking for any story – as England walk through the qualifiers.

Sadly, people like James (Liverpool and England) jump on that bandwagon instead of resetting their immediate need to criticize based on this social media echo chamber effect that sucks people in.

Of course, the blame needs to be laid squarely on Southgate and now Tuchel’s shoulders by making England’s qualifying campaigns almost soporific. Imagine building squads of players who want to play for their country, have a high level of skill and camaraderie with their teammates. Where Southgate fell short, the school-masterly manner in which Tuchel thinks about the game, his squad and what he expects from his players has a team playing to a plan that doesn’t rely on purely defensive qualities and gets the most out of many of our better players.

We can also blame the media, which treats international breaks dismissively because England qualify so easily and searches for any narrative to generate a few clicks. It’s okay to have some fun with it, like Phil Neville in the World Cup ladder. Just don’t do it condescendingly. After all, there have been times when we have made a load of bollocks of qualification.

You only need to see the pure joy of the Welsh, Scottish, and Irish as their teams get a mulligan to make it into the playoffs, and the despair of teams like Hungary who miss out once again.

Don’t be fooled by the little England of the red top media (and even the Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg.) There is a whole world that actively and passionately follows its national team. Paul McDevitt

What about England’s ‘no dickheads’ policy?

I’ve noticed the steady stream of love for Jude Bellingham across those at Football365, so I thought I’d add my own view.

A few years ago, the England set-up was in a difficult place. Toxic, fragmented, and well short of the standards required for a major tournament. Gareth Southgate came in and reset the culture pretty quickly (an achievement sometimes forgotten). He quickly employed a “no dickhead” policy as a key foundation. You only need to recall Foden and Greenwood being sent home from Iceland to see how seriously he took it while also remembering which one of the two responded positively.

Fast forward to 2024 and I felt that policy seemed to soften. Southgate started making space for both Bellingham and Palmer. Both exceptional talents but both carrying reputations for being more than a little self-assured. Bellingham’s time at Dortmund alone offers plenty of examples of his edge. Palmer has had similar moments in interviews.

My view is that this is where Southgate unintentionally created his own problem. He tried to absorb two strong personalities into a system built carefully on togetherness and humility.

Now Thomas Tuchel is giving Bellingham a chance while simultaneously trying to guide him toward a bit more humility. A player with that level of talent can lift a side, but only if they contribute to the collective rather than orbit above it (both on the field and off the field).

And that’s the real question here: is it worth risking the unity of a squad for one mercurial player? In my experience, both in sport and in work, the answer tends to be no. I’ve worked with brilliant individuals who were so convinced of their own importance that the team around them couldn’t operate in that environment. Bellingham and Palmer need to realise behaviour, humility and influence matter just as much as their abilities with a ball.

Palmer and Bellingham can absolutely be pivotal players for England but they have to fit the environment rather than reshaping it. If the choice is between maintaining a unified dressing room or forcing in a superstar at any cost, the sensible call is sometimes the harsh one, which is why I support Tuchel’s approach here.

So while I share the F365 admiration for Bellingham, I’d argue if his presence threatens the team ethos and cohesion needed to win World Cups, then the right decision is to leave him out or, at the very least, call him out on it. Adam – Watford

…Consider this a witch hunt if you must, but no-one is forcing him to light the torches, sharpen the pitchforks and tie innocents to the dunking stool.

Next is one of those very tricky hypothetical questions that requires a lot of thought. So here we go. Your manager is highly critical of your behaviour and doesn’t pick you for a number of games. In those games the side plays better in your absence and , allegedly, the squad had a better atmosphere with you gone.

Your talent is such that a recall is guaranteed, with the proviso that your behaviour *must* improve. So – and here comes the tricky bit – do you:

A/ Behave immaculately and beyond reproach. Guaranteeing that the headlines run along the lines of ‘ Jude shows new maturity and turns over a new leaf, all in order to be part of Thomas Tuchel’s England.’ Hard to put a pointy hat and an unseemly wart on him there, no?

Or B:/ Behave like Jude Bellingham. Whose response to his manager’s message is to behave exactly like he did previously. The manager can just live with it because….he is Jude Bellingham (copyright Sol Campbell – also an utter tool)

It takes a special kind of arrogance or stupidity to bank on Thomas Tuchel just shrugging and living with it. Unenthusiastic seeker of confrontation that he is.

It is not a witch hunt if, for some loony reason, people like a certain level of behaviour from players representing their country. And when they don’t get it they say so, openly and loudly.

The Mail and Telegraph writers might know their audience and throw them red meat accordingly, but it’d be a fool who’d ignore how many of these people there are and sneer at their opinions and the power of them (epic foolishness exhibit A: Brexit; epic foolishness exhibit B: President Trump etc etc )

Until this is resolved it will be part of every damn press conference from here to the World Cup. So if Bellingham won’t resolve it, do it for him. Then not only will he belatedly get the message but so will *everyone* else. And the press can return to talking about the actual football.

Who knows, maybe he’ll even understand the concept of behaving well when representing England *before* the World Cup.

But I don’t think I’ll be putting my pitchforks and torches into storage just yet. Witchsmeller Pursuivant James, England

Wonder what this guy thinks of Jude Bellingham…

My two cents worth, he’s an absolute chop. He thinks he’s God’s gift to football, and struts around like a demi-God. Like a lot of footballers, he dives and fakes being kicked like the best of them, a true actor and fake.

Sure, he’s a good player, but like everything in life – first comes ATTITUDE, then talent and skill. His attitude like Gareth Bale sucks. Both are in the same camp, knobs. Michael Zylstra

Generational, my eye

Ok, I’ll bite. Dave Tickner states ‘Bellingham, even on a quiet night, is generational’. A few questions for Dave:

What do you mean by generational? When does the generation start and end? Is he generational for England, or across the whole world?

Generational is a ridiculous term that elevates a player above “world class” which should suffice. For me, word class is someone who fits into your current world 11. Not some who’s had a couple of good Premier League matches. As such, Bellingham isn’t world class for me, never mind generational. Trent was also deemed generational by many, despite not being able to get into the England team.

Please make it make sense. Simon S, NUFC, Cheshire

Accurate passes aren’t for everyone

So the latest chapter in Arsenal fans’ frankly bizarre hard-on over Phil Foden is that he was ‘excessively praised’ for assisting Eze’s goal for England vs Serbia (Mails, 14 November).

Well, if five yard passes are so easy, then why did Eze make such a hilariously inept, cringeworthy balls-up of n even easier opportunity to play in an unmarked Foden in the six yard box just a couple of minutes beforehand?

Just another example of the perennial bridesmaids and sub-AFTV social media oddballs getting themselves all bitter, jealous and twisted over a born winner with a house full of medals, trophies and awards. It’s really weird.

It doesn’t stop there, either. Their new obsession seems to be Nico O’Reilly making his calm, composed mark ahead of a disciplinary liability who has been trusted to play a sum total of 86 Premier League minutes this season.

Like I said. Really weird. Scooby, Manchester

The case for England Danny

Danny Welbeck has scored more goals with a better goals per match and goals per minute ratio (16 goals/42 matches/.38 goals per match a goal every 146 minutes) than the following:

1. Teddy Sheringham (11 / 51 / .22 / 258′) 2. John Barnes (11 / 79 / .14 / 514′) 3. Paul Gascoigne (10 / 57 / .18 / 419′) 4. Ian Wright (9 / 33 / .27 / 191′) 5. Peter Beardsley (9 / 59 / .15 / 454′) 6. Glenn Hoddle ( 8 / 53 / .15 / 494′) 7. Jamie Vardy (7 / 26 / .27 / 189′) 8. Robbie Fowler (7 / 26 / .27 / 162′) 9. Emile Heskey (7 / 62 / .11 / 487′) 10. Chris Waddle (6 / 62 / .10 / 732′) 11. Les Ferdinand (5 / 17 / .29 / 223′) 12. Phil Foden (4 / 47 / .09 / 746′)

While maybe unfair to compare his numbers to the non-strikers on the list – still pretty interesting… MAW, LA Gooner (He’s also scored at a higher per minute rate than Wayne Rooney, Bobby Charlton, Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and Frank Lampard)

Ireland and all that

England will get knocked out in the quarters and the Irish will make the semis of the 2026 World Cup.

Mark my words. Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

…A few points.

You’ll never have what we get. We get moments that last lifetimes unexpectedly brilliant. Momentous feelings. Be honest even you English felt it last night.

Why you won’t ever get it is you’re supposed to be brilliant. When you finally win your next World Cup you’ll be happy but yeah we’re supposed to. The absolute joy of being an Irish fan is wtf? We’re not supposed to do this?? The actual f**k!!!! Which you’ll never get. Scotland and Wales have to a degree but not to Irish levels. Close would be Northern Ireland. And natural obvious friction aside the single best chant I ever heard was when they went 1 up against England and they started singing. “We’re not Brazil we’re norn Ireland” cos they weren’t supposed to be beating you. It was glorious.

Troy f**king parrot 19 goals since August 5 in two games. A hat trick away. Another thing you won’t get. He’s a national hero forever.

Kelleher. That’s it. It’s not it. He saved three certain goals last night Hungary specifically szoboszlai. Battered us. Battered, he was everywhere and always looked like he was walking. Majestic display. Sorry bout your luck dom. 😂. On Kelleher Alisson out again this year. We have lost all the points. Last year not so much. He’s seriously underrated cos he’s not flashy. No fuss

TROY F**KING PARROT

Also on dom he should have watched Thursday Ronaldo doing crying eyes then sent off and crying eyes back. He did it after (admittedly a majestic goal) they went 2-1 up to Troy f**king Parrot. Silly man. Silly silly man. Also you should link his post match interview. The surliest tantrum f**k you interview ever. It’s comedy gold. And I love Dom as a Liverpool supporter. Best player this season. Best player last night. He was actually majestic. But don’t be a c**t Dom has a habit of catching in your throat. 😢

TROY F***ING PARROT (Congrats spurs. You sold Harry Kane’s replacement for f*** all. He’s in the Netherlands will be at a top team soon. He’s only 23)

TROY F***ING PARROT. fin.

Ah FFS, can you just go with it?

It was a last second goal when they were down and out to win a game and have a chance to keep slim chances of getting to World Cup alive.

Those goals don’t come often, less so again in International football and less so in a game with something resting on it.

For the first time in years, Irish football had me running around the house screaming for a goal.

Listen to the commentary, look at the players on the pitch, the bench, the tears.

It might not have been Ollie Watkins in the semi final. But my God it felt good.

Only a playoff – my arse. Paul

(It was the Irish fella’s own headline. Ah FFS, can you just go with it? – Ed)

Too much football on TV

I have just read the always relevant John Nicholson comment and once again find his criticism spot on. The TV landscape to watch football is an absolute mess and has been for a long time. In the early 2000’s we were told that increasing competition in the broadcasting space was a good thing as it would (1) bring down the price to watch football on tv, (2) make more games accessible to watch and (3) generate greater interest in the sport.

Number (1) is presumably false when you take inflation into account – it certainly seems to cost more than ever to watch your football team on TV given that you’re likely to need to have multiple subscriptions if you wanted to watch them in both domestic and european competitions. Of course, it depends how you define “cost to watch football”.

Number (2) is true only if you mean “are viewable with the right subscription” and not in the sense it was intended, namely that more people would have access to more football matches.

Number (3) is arguably true, but quite possibly only in the sense of the global market and I have not seen any research that has shown football interest has grown or fallen nationally as “more games are broadcast”.

The reality is that all “increasing the number of rights holders to broadcast” has done is to put a paywall in place of the vast majority of games that people want to watch and leave a handful of highlights packages available for free to air + protected international games. It is a real shame.

Personally, there are LOTS of games i’d like to watch but only pay for one subscription to Sky Sports for a variety of reasons. This just means I am shut out of the Champions League now – so sadly I never get to see my team play in that competition. I also wanted to watch Ireland play Hungary yesterday, but again, didnt have the subscription so, alas.

As John Nicholson says, it is a mess and it’s hard to see how you unwind from the current predicament when there is so much money involved. It seems to me that, in broad terms, one of two things could happen:

1. The bottom falls out of the broadcast market and current providers effectively stop bidding so much to show football. This could lead to a shakeup of the status quo, paving the way for cheaper access to more football if the overall costs for showing it also decrease. We’re likely to get fewer games broadcast, but if the big players stopped competing, you could see more games being free to air or free to stream with adverts as a way of covering the lower costs.

2. The model continues for now and we’re left with a muddled landscape of “content providers” and, eventually some form of regulation comes in to make sense of the mess.

I think regulation to transform the market structure is unlikely and possibly not even a good idea, but trying to watch football and/or follow your team in the 21st Century if you cant go to every game costs so much that, eventually, people will just ask “why do i bother?”.