How do England solve their Jude Bellingham problem?
Bellingham is England’s biggest talent but his ultra-confidence modelled on Michael Jordan took back some of his England teammates at Euro 2024. The new manager must find a way to let him flourish
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Your support makes all the difference.One question for Gareth Southgate’s eventual successor is how they would respond to a conspicuous moment that happened in the Euro 2024 final. That was when England’s biggest star, Jude Bellingham, appeared to roar at the bench. Some observers sitting close by claim he questioned the movement of his fellow attackers, who he insisted were too slow. Southgate tried not to react.
Reporting this isn’t to raise another discussion that seeks to doubt or do down England’s great hope, in the way many people will instantly presume is the old build-em-up-to-knock-em-down culture. But it is to point out how one of the next manager's great challenges will be to ensure that a talent like Bellingham is properly maximised; that he isn’t wasted – that he actually wins something.
It’s also to recognise that English football is dealing with a different sort of personality than its national team has ever had, perhaps more akin to American sport. Some find this refreshing, and required. They point to how Bellingham has done something no English player ever has at a tournament, and actually scored a late knockout equaliser to keep them in it. The spectacular manner of that bicycle kick against Slovakia only added to the audacity of it all. How else?
The days since England’s defeat have still seen increasing murmurs about his impact off the pitch. There, talk grows that it isn’t quite as appreciated as his talents on the pitch. That cry of “who else?” after the Slovakia goal seemed to sum up a mood. From the very start, there were comments that the publicity campaign around Bellingham as a potential saviour went against Southgate’s team ethos. Others felt he was promoted to the “leadership group” too early, especially since he was unwilling to perform some of the more unpopular responsibilities, like speaking to the media. At least one long-serving squad member was aggrieved at being asked to talk again when Bellingham was apparently exempt. The Real Madrid forward then ostentatiously spoke to Spanish media in the mixed zone after the final, having persistently made a point of not doing English press.
Many might well quip that articles such as this are precisely why, but there is more to it.
Like with his clubs, some England teammates have been struck by how the much-younger Bellingham can speak to them as if he is the senior pro. The 21-year-old very visibly went around to address most of his teammates after the final, and it hasn’t escaped attention that a number of screen grabs and clips of the cold responses have done the rounds on social media, subject to the typical hyperactive scrutiny.
Numerous figures close to the camp insist this is all overblown. The captain, Harry Kane, is one who greatly admires Bellingham. The midfielder has also developed a strong friendship with Trent Alexander-Arnold, to the point that many around the squad are now talking as if it could swing the Liverpool wing-back going to Real Madrid when his contract runs out next year.
The real pity over Bellingham was a much more common complaint about stars at Euro 2024. It was that the overbearing rigours of the club season prevented an international tournament from seeing the absolute best of him. There just wasn’t enough of a break between a landmark Champions League win and then the Euro 2024 start. Bellingham himself raised this in his interview with Spanish media after the final. With his physical condition impacted, he couldn’t really be more than the “moments” player he became for Madrid in the last few months of the season. Had it been another mid-season competition, as with Qatar, the Euros might have seen the real Bellingham.
Those moments still showed so much of his true quality, as well as the range of it. Alongside the bicycle kick, which is a goal that will rank up there in English football history with David Platt’s hooked finish against Belgium, there was the explosive manner of his other goal. The header against Serbia has become a Bellingham speciality. The clever touch back to assist Cole Palmer’s equaliser in the final was meanwhile one of England’s few moments of deftness so sorely needed against Spain. It displayed this extrasensory awareness.
Beyond those, some of the most electric moments in the run to Berlin were Bellingham’s sudden bursts. There were at least three occasions where he would perform a move like the Zinedine Zidane roulette and then accelerate away. One spin and surge led to a shot in the final that whistled just wide. Another, admittedly, saw him just run across the pitch against Switzerland. He occasionally looked too desperate to make something happen, a bit like Steven Gerrard.
It didn’t help that Southgate’s tactics ensured all of Bellingham, Kane and Phil Foden ended up occupying the same space. That is something else any new manager has to address.
The tactics compounded the effects of the long club season. There’s also an argument that there wasn’t enough Bellingham full-stop.
If one thing can now be definitively said about Southgate’s England, it’s that they never had it in them to get over the line. Some believe there was a residual softness that reflected the manager’s lack of trophies. There certainly aren’t really goading images to match Leonardo Bonucci’s cry of “it’s coming to Rome” or Dani Carvajal’s crying gesture on Sunday.
Bellingham, however, looks like a different kind of player. He is certainly a very different sort of personality. Euro 2024 saw constant talk that Bellingham is increasingly modelling himself on the image of Michael Jordan in The Last Dance. That’s an athlete who demands the best and isn’t shy about it. He uses everything else as “fuel” – no matter how innocuous – to ensure he gradually makes it there. It can be abrasive, but the argument is that everyone benefits by going to higher levels.
Some camp insiders talk of how this is an “American sports” personality that isn’t really seen in football, and it does involve backing yourself, to say the least. Except, you don’t really have to go as far as America.
There is so much of it at Real Madrid. It is partly why Bellingham has so perfectly fit club football’s greatest stage. He displays those classic traits of “Madridismo” in utter self-assurance alongside ostentatious shows of respect.
Bellingham himself has illustrated why that works in Madrid, with late winners in El Clasico and two major trophies.
The next England manager will have to work out how to maximise it, as much as work with it.
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