Bellingham rift with Tuchel widens as England boss sensationalises normal sub reaction | OneFootball

We’re starting to wonder if Thomas Tuchel’s palms are being greased by the English tabloids such is the way he sensationalised what looked to be a perfectly normal reaction from Jude Bellingham to being subbed in the Three Lions’ 2-0 win over Albania.

The England manager has been a blessing for those of us tasked with keeping the attention of punters starved of football of significance across the last couple of international breaks, not only by snubbing one of the best footballers in the world but by leaving his opinion of Bellingham gloriously open to interpretation.

Having left him out of the squad entirely in October, Tuchel kept Morgan Rogers in his team ahead of the Real Madrid man for the clash with Serbia on Thursday before reinstating him to a starting lineup of second-stringers against Albania as a Harry Kane brace ensured England finished World Cup qualifying with eight wins from eight without conceding a goal.

That should be the story, and if not then perhaps Kane’s absurd record of scoring zero proper goals for England, Eberechi Eze’s failure to stake his claim for a spot on the left wing or – as Tuchel pushed for in another odd bit of his post-match interview – Jarell Quansah playing on debut “like he had 50 caps already”. He looked a bit shaky to us.

There’s going to be multiple Bellingham stories no matter what Tuchel says when asked about him. Not being a guaranteed starter is story enough. Bellingham playing well, Bellingham playing poorly, it doesn’t matter.

What we absolutely didn’t need but very much welcome are the over-the-top lines that Tuchel genuinely appears to take pleasure in delivering to the masses.

Bellingham was replaced by Morgan Rogers in the 84th minute. He wasn’t happy, waved his arms a bit and slumped on the bench. As Tuchel himself admitted “if you have a player like Jude that is so competitive he never likes it.”

And that ladies and gents, should have been that. “I don’t want to make it bigger at the moment than it is,” Tuchel added. You’ve failed spectacularly there, mate.

That’s a little bit strong and any headline writer worth their salt could suggest a HUGE RIFT through that alone. ‘Tuchel urges England ‘respect’ in response to Bellingham strop – ‘My words stand”. You get the idea.

Oh, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. And it got worse when Tuchel was asked point blank whether Bellingham may not be buying into the collective of the England team. Just say yes, mate. Instead…

Now, we’re 99 per cent sure that Tuchel is saying that the person asking the question or we, the public, are the ones with the “bad impression” and that the perception that there’s a poor team spirit is the “image” he doesn’t “want to transport”.

But you can see the problem he’s creating for himself by offering up these wonderful soundbites for us very willing recipients to prey upon. And while reports on a clash between Bellingham and Tuchel don’t matter as long as there is no actual clash, we suspect Bellingham won’t take kindly to Tuchel granting us the opportunity to write stories as if there is, which may in itself widen the rift that may or not (probably not) have been there for the last two months.