Look at Jude Bellingham blatantly not celebrating with Harry Kane | OneFootball

While it may be true that Jude Bellingham can be and perhaps is a bit of a pr*ck, what’s undeniably true is that there is a media-led agenda against the Real Madrid and England man, which began in September in the Daily Mail and has been subsequently fed by a) England being very good, thus killing the usual narrative and frankly b) Thomas Tuchel.

Sections of the media were honest enough in October to admit that November would be dominated by Bellingham as World Cup qualification was already assured and well, who wants to write about Harry Kane scoring yet more goals as England once again concede no goals?

As Ian Wright eloquently commented on Monday morning: “They need to create this kind of beef because there’s nothing else to talk about till the World Cup so it’s gonna be this all the way to the World Cup. They hate that they can’t get to him.

“They hate that they can’t negatively influence his club career like they have done to so many before him. A blessed young man with talent and love in abundance.”

On Thursday there was even talk of ‘seismic’ developments when Tuchel said that he could not play Bellingham, Phil Foden and Kane together, which looked even less seismic when the trio were all on the pitch together on Sunday.

But back to Bellingham, who started against Albania, played relatively well in a game in which it was difficult to impress, and then looked quite mildly annoyed when he was substituted just after Kane made it 2-0.

The image at the head of this page shows Bellingham celebrating that goal with Kane. So can the Guardian‘s Jacob Steinberg explain this line of questioning…?

The full transcription:

Steinberg: “When he was going to come off, I mean, most of your players are going off to the corner to celebrate with Harry…”

Tuchel: “That was 2-0, no?”

Steinberg: “Yeah, for the second goal. Then you’ve got one player who is kind of not…”

Tuchel: “He didn’t celebrate?”

Steinberg: “Well he was flinging his arms in the air and clearly not happy about coming off.”

Tuchel: “Did he already see that he needs to go out?”

Steinberg: “It looked like it yeah, and it doesn’t seem like it’s someone who is embracing the collective, from afar.”

Tuchel: “That’s a bad impression. First of all it’s your impression, and this is bad because it should be about the collective and I think what we did in camp was all about the collective. I will have to review it because I was very happy about the goal. I had a quick talk with Morgan Rogers and I was sure that everyone will celebrate together. I will have a look at it but that’s not the image that we want to transport.”

Steinberg then wrote that ‘the midfielder joined in the celebrations after Harry Kane’s second goal of the evening but then flung his arms in the air and left Tuchel unimpressed’ in his written piece, so he absolutely knew that Bellingham had celebrated with Kane and yet chose to tell Tuchel he was “kind of not” celebrating in order to prompt a reaction. What a very odd way to approach a press conference.

Bellingham’s reaction is described as ‘petulance’ in that Guardian headline. Brace yourself, because there is footage and it is damning…

When you watch that disgraceful behaviour, you can see why this is the Daily Mail headline:

Genuinely, what the f*** is this about? This is way past the point of an agenda and has become a witch-hunt.

There is extensive footage – and hundreds of photos – of Bellingham ‘taken by the collective joy’ and celebrating with Kane. He then walks off, clapping the fans, and shakes hands with Tuchel before he sat down. He did raise his arms in the exasperated manner of a man who is being substituted but if ‘arms raised and eyeballs locked on his head coach’ is the extent of the ‘repulsive’ behaviour then you might have picked the wrong narrative, guys.

Kane absolutely ‘should have been the headline act’ and why was he not the headline act? Because the media decided otherwise, that’s why. It must have been manna from heaven when Bellingham raised his arms at realising he would be subbed. What a shame he then applauded the fans, shook hands with the coach and neglected to kick anything on his way to the bench.

Hope clearly (cleary?) knows his Daily Mail audience. But to answer his question: He would probably raise his arms and lock eyeballs with Tuchel. And we could all carry on with our days without being weird.