A caller to a radio station yesterday said that England cannot win the World Cup without Jude Bellingham, and the hosts surrendered in agreement. That is probably true, but they can’t win it with him, either.
Any suggestion that the white knight from Real Madrid will ride to the rescue and all will be OK is like believing air freshener is the solution to a blocked drain. The 22-year-old played in the 3-1 defeat by Senegal this summer and the previous qualifying wins over Albania, Latvia and Andorra, each as unimaginative and laborious as Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Andorra at Villa Park.
That is not to pin the blame for such toil solely on Bellingham, but by the same token, let us not believe he is the silver bullet. With or without him, Thomas Tuchel is fumbling around with a chamber that repeatedly jams. All of the evidence of late – pre-dating the German’s arrival, even – tells us that England are not World Cup winners. Far from it, in fact.
So to think that any one player is the fix is short-sighted, especially not when the one player suddenly deified is himself part of the problem. As a player, Bellingham improves England. As a personality and persona, he does not.
Tuchel said last week he had hoped he had more credit with the English media on the back of the ‘headlines created’ by his use of the word ‘repulsive’ to describe Bellingham’s on-the-pitch behaviour, given he was speaking in a second language. There were two problems with that. One, it was said during a live radio broadcast. Two, he was speaking the truth!
When saying what he did in June, it felt like here was an England manager ready to tackle the elephant in the room. That is, Bellingham’s leading-man syndrome having a belittling impact on those he sees as extras. But no, Tuchel has apologised, had a little swipe at the media and has left the elephant to recover from shoulder surgery.
England cannot win the World Cup without Jude Bellingham – and Thomas Tuchel has opted not to tackle the elephant in the room
All the evidence of late tells us Tuchel’s England are not World Cup winners – far from it
In his absence, Bellingham has become more important to England, at least judging by some of the fallout and analysis in the days since the Andorra snoozer. It was ever thus – in football, there is nothing like a broken bone to make the heart grow fonder. It is fanciful at best, but more so plain stupid.
Pre Bellingham and during the formative days of the midfielder’s international career, Gareth Southgate created England United. Players and supporters felt good about themselves, the badge and the jersey. Beyond winning a trophy, it was the greatest achievement by an England manager.
For what feels like the best part of two years, however, the stitching of that togetherness has been picked at. My colleague Oliver Holt tackled the taboo of Bellingham’s father, Mark, in a brilliant article last week. There is a dark side to the Bellingham entourage that has made their superstar see danger in the shadows that did not really exist. They will point to articles such as this and Oliver Holt’s as reason to believe they are right, but their mistrust of and hostility towards the outside world has become a self-fulling prophecy for Team Bellingham.
Because for me, it is no surprise that his emergence as England’s best player – no-one is disputing that, he is a fabulous footballer – has seen Southgate’s unifying miracle slowly unravel into what we had long since thought England to be – a patchwork quilt of ego and ability, where the collective is less than the sum of its parts.
Win a World Cup? Come on, they were deservedly beaten by Senegal, the team ranked 19th in the world, in June. England are a long way off No 1.
It should be offered as mitigation, though, that this here tonight in Belgrade is the first proper test of Tuchel’s tenure. A competitive, competitive fixture. We will learn more about Tuchel’s England beneath the floodlights of a partisan Rajko Mitic Stadium than we will the sleepy suburb of Aston amid the long shadows of a sunny, Saturday evening.
And without Bellingham, we will learn even more than we would with him. This is a chance for those he can ‘intimidate’ – Tuchel’s word – to put their names up in lights. This is a chance to show that an England without Bellingham, in a big game, can perform, that they can extract a result that will as good as book their place at next summer’s finals. Who else?! Maybe it will be Elliot Anderson, Noni Madueke or Eberechi Eze.
Harry Kane said yesterday that a game in such hostile surrounds is a chance to forge a bond that, by the captain admitting as much, suggests does not already exist.
There is a dark side to the Bellingham entourage that has made their superstar see danger in the shadows that did not really exist
‘Sometimes, when you get through these types of games together, especially as a newish team, like we are, that’s how you build experiences, that’s how you build togetherness,’ he said. ‘There might be times we have to defend as a team and ultimately find a way to win.
‘When you do that against these types of opponents in these stadiums, I feel like that builds an extra layer of togetherness that you can’t form without playing.’
If Kane is wrong, then perhaps England do need Bellingham to stand any chance of being successful. That will certainly form a large part of the narrative – ‘England cannot win the World Cup without Jude Bellingham!’, we will hear.
The bigger challenge for Tuchel, you feel, is finding a way to win the World Cup with him.
