Why England should ditch ‘preening, self-important manchild’ Bellingham | OneFootball

The international break is almost over but the discourse over ‘preening, self-important manchild’ Jude Bellingham is not about to give up that easily.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…

Why you gotta be so Jude?

Here’s my take on the Bellingham discussion. Firstly, it’s a moot point whether he’s a generational talent or not. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Let’s all agree he’s a very good player.

The more important question is whether his inclusion in an England starting 11 makes us a better team. I’d say the evidence is mixed. He was pretty poor in the Euros, notwithstanding that last-minute worldie against Slovakia. The problem was his insistence on being involved at every stage of every move. This resulted in him drifting out of position, giving the ball away, ignoring obvious passes and frequently getting in the way of his more disciplined team-mates. All forgivable if merely the upshot of a certain misguided puppy-dog enthusiasm (think early 90s Gazza), but that wasn’t my impression.

It seemed what we were looking at was a preening, self-important manchild. That’s clearly what worries Tuchel and it’s what worries me. I guess you’d shrug your shoulders and put up with it if there were no other options. But they’re are – good ones too. Is Cole Palmer that much of a drop off from Bellingham? Is Morgan Rogers? Is Foden? I wouldn’t say so. In conclusion, I’d leave Jude at home. Matt Pitt

Shut up about Bellingham

Bellingham is a terrific player. Bellingham is overhyped.

Bellingham is one of the best English players. It may not always be the best thing for the England team if Bellingham starts.

Bellingham works hard and gives everything (certainly when I’ve watched him I’ve felt this to be the case). Bellingham can be a bit arrogant (not always a bad thing IMO).

Bellingham is a highly effective footballer. Bellingham often makes mistakes.

Some of the criticism levelled at him probably is rooted in racism and much of it is nonsense. A lot of the criticism of him is justified

Bellingham might be the best player for Real Madrid. There are better players in the Premier League (and it’s a higher quality, more competitive league than La Liga.)

Bellingham should be in the World Cup squad and start some games as appropriate.

All of the above are true. Tuchel’s responsibility is not to put all the best players in the England team. Tuchel’s responsibility is to get the England team playing well enough to do well at the World Cup. I suspect Bellingham is a key part of the plan but in practice that may not work out. Southgate retained Bellingham at all costs in the summer despite him being absolutely gubbed by the final. The team should come first. Remember the last time we won something our best striker (arguably still ever) missed out through injury and Geoff Hurst became a legend. The important thing is England do well.

All that said, if England don’t win the World Cup, you know that whatever decisions Tuchel makes will be held against him and he’ll be forced out by the press. Ashmundo 

Wright on

Thought long and hard about sending this, but here goes.

Ian Wright is both right and wrong about Bellingham. There are definitely some journalists and people in general who are motivated to pull him down because of the colour of his skin. But there are also, and I think this latter group is much larger, journalists and people in general who are making fair criticisms of his demeanour and behaviour.

Im not having a dig at Wright, I’ll never be able to walk a mile in his or Jude’s shoes because I’m white (closest I came was a Nina Simone stage biopic where the lead actress turned the tables on the minority white audience members in a mock ‘who should we choose to lynch’ scene – uncomfortable and instructive), but I would imagine it depresses and wears you down terribly.

That said, I don’t think these kind of ill thought out comments help either way though. They’ll just annoy people making fair criticisms, and the racists will enjoy thinking he’s taken the bait. RHT/TS x

The real quiz

Ian Wright used the N word in relation to Jude Bellingham. I wonder what % of white British people have ever used the N word to describe a black or mixed race British person? The number is low.

Also, does Jude Bellingham consider himself to be black? His dad is white. No one in Africa,  latin america or much of Asia would describe Bellingham as black. Does Ian Wright seriously subscribe to the ultra racist ‘one drop rule’ from 20th century America?

I’m not in any way belittling the terrible racial abuse Ian Wright experienced during his playing days but labelling as racist all white journalists who criticize a mixed race player is in itself extremely racist. Ben

Just read  Wright’s rant about how Bellingham is treated by some journalists and have one very simple but genuine question: do people view Bellingham as ‘a black footballer’? G Thomas, Breda

‘Curiously, the Daily Mail are not continuing their obsession with Jude Bellingham – oddly, they have been uncharacteristically slow in transcribing those Ian Wright quotes’

Yeah it’s weird how news organisations selectively omit reports on certain stories.  Nudging an agenda or something…. Anon

Why’d you have to go and make things so overrated?

Sorry but what absolute nonsense some of those players on the most overrated list is.

“Always be wary of a striker praised for “stretching defences” as the subtext is almost always that they’re a bit sh*t at putting the ball in the back of the net. Watkins is very, very good at stretching defences”

He has got 15+ goals in the league alone in each of the last 3 seasons. Do you mean he’s in bad form or what? He’s not overrated at all, he’s getting a lot of stick. Nobody would want him in their England squad. He also has 27 assists in those 3 seasons, I doubt many have more than him.

Henderson? What kind of drivel are you typing? Pointing, shouting? You sound like a 15 year old on Twitter. He’s been a starter in every single team he’s been in and a captain too. He’s quite obviously good. How are people still chatting this utter nonsense. Why even mention politics when referring to a players ability?

People like Nketiah and DCL aren’t even rated highly at all. They’re routinely mocked. I appreciate you have to make a list but if you have to create these nonsene narratives because you can’t find any other player to pick them maybe just don’t write the article. Dion, Arsenal.  

World Cup prediction

Hello Ed,

Sorry to ruin everyone’s giddy fun, but England’s World Cup group will be as follows:

Group C:

England Croatia – our new tournament bezzie mates Scotland – because it’s obvious, isn’t it? Haiti (plucky underdog) – because it makes for nice pre-tournament articles about a beautiful country and strong population ravaged by natural disaster.

England Results:

Game 1: 3-0 win vs Haiti – first goal after 60 mins of hard fought low-blockery and pluck. Bellingham is subbed on to score the first, thus opening the floodgates.

Game 2: 1-1 draw vs Scotland – Last-minute Scottish equaliser cancels out early Saka goal. The result will be attributed to amazing travelling support for the Scots; everyone will be astounded that the English and Scottish fans had not fought once during the build-up to the game, disregarding the fact that those who can afford to travel to a World Cup in the USA are peaceful.

Game 3: 2-2 draw vs Croatia – fight back from 2-0 down. Bellingham instrumental after halftime introduction, calls for him to start games rain down from all sides.

Tuchel is now under pressure for not breezing through the group stages, blames match locations and travel schedule. Early tournament whipping boys will be Harry Kane and Morgan Rogers.

Final table:

Croatia – 7 points

England – 5 points

Scotland – 4 points

Haiti – 0 points

Next round: An African nation that we should beat, but are well-drilled and have the tekkers to cause us problems.

Happy to write some pre-tournament articles on location in Haiti if you’re hiring.