If England are to have any chance of winning the World Cup in the summer, then Jude Bellingham has to be at the heart of the team. Anything else, frankly, will count as the greatest act of self-sabotage this nation has ever perpetrated at the tournament.
Sure, we have had the debate about Bellingham’s haughty attitude towards his team-mates on the pitch and what England coach Thomas Tuchel needed to do to mould him into the player and the personality he needed him to be for the long trip to the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Those were legitimate arguments and there were times during the qualifying campaign where it felt as if England were spoiled for choice in creative attacking positions and that Bellingham’s influence and power had waned as Tuchel established his authority.
Tuchel describing Bellingham’s behaviour as ‘repulsive’ was, of course, a huge misstep which the England manager has blamed on the subtleties of the language. He left Bellingham out of qualifiers when he was available and England sailed through to the tournament anyway.
But the time for playing power games is over now. The time for posturing and manoeuvring is gone. We are the business end of the build-up to the World Cup and it feels absurd that there should be any doubt over whether Bellingham, if fully fit, should start England’s opening game against Croatia in Dallas on June 17.
We have plenty of form in the self-sabotage department. The marginalisation of Glenn Hoddle at the 1982 World Cup is probably the clearest example of it. When Hoddle became manager, his callous man-management of David Beckham at the 1998 tournament fitted the template, too.
And yes, there are sublime talents among England’s attacking midfielders. A year ago, England could have boasted with some certainty that they had the finest array of No 10s of any nation in the world.
But things have changed over the last year, as they tend to do before a World Cup. Things have changed and the balance of power has shifted. Now that the start of the tournament is only a couple of months away, Tuchel needs Bellingham a lot more than Bellingham needs Tuchel.
That talent pool does not look quite as rich any more. Phil Foden is desperately short of form and confidence. He tried hard when he started against Uruguay at Wembley on Friday evening but he looked like a player groping in the dark for his best form. He may struggle to make the squad.
Cole Palmer, who is such a beautiful player to watch, appears to have been neutered by the chaos at Chelsea and has been afflicted by a series of injuries. He is not, currently, the transformative player he was 12 months ago. As things stand, he will be coming off the bench.
Bukayo Saka, another sublime attacking talent, has been looking tired and overworked at Arsenal for some time. That is unlikely to change as Arsenal press ever harder for their first league title for 22 years and pursue their chase for a first Champions League triumph.
And Morgan Rogers, who is thought to be in pole position for the No 10 role, has faded in luminosity as Aston Villa’s outstanding season has faltered as they move into sight of the prize of a finish in the top five.
Even if all those players had been on top form, there should never really have been any debate about whether Bellingham would start for England at the World Cup. But the fact that his challengers have fallen away only heightens Bellingham’s importance to England.
Bellingham is a generational talent. That has not changed just because he has had an injury-disrupted season. In some ways, that just makes him even more important. Many of his team-mates will reach the end of the season in a state of exhaustion. Bellingham, barring another setback, will be fresh and raring to go.
England may have weaknesses elsewhere, particularly in defence, but in Bellingham, we have a world class midfielder who starts for Real Madrid, who are still close to being the best club side in the world.
It takes stature and a big-game mentality to make it at the Bernabeu and Bellingham has fitted right in. He is a player who changes games. In Bellingham, we have a player who oozes quality and class on the pitch. He’s a big-game player. He’s a Rolls-Royce.
It is strange enough that Tuchel has ignored the talent of Bellingham’s Madrid team-mate, Trent Alexander-Arnold, at right back. Preferring Ben White to Alexander-Arnold in his most recent squad looked positively perverse.
But if Tuchel leaves Bellingham out of his starting line-up in the USA, Mexico and Canada, if he consigns him to a role as a bench-player, England can kiss goodbye to any hope they have of winning the World Cup.
The one decision De Zerbi could not afford to make at Spurs
Roberto de Zerbi is a bold choice to take over at Tottenham Hotspur. It is difficult to know if anyone will be able to reach the players in the toxic dressing room at Spurs, but if anyone can, De Zerbi can.
Add chaos to chaos and sometimes you get order. De Zerbi represents shock therapy for Spurs and shock therapy is exactly what they need if they are going to climb clear of the Premier League relegation zone this season. They should have appointed him when Thomas Frank was sacked.
I understand the objections to him taking over that have been articulated by several groups which have been appalled by his praise for former Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood while both men were at Marseille.
Greenwood, 24, left Manchester United in 2023, after a video had circulated widely on social media and a woman made allegations against him of physical and sexual violence. Charges against Greenwood, including attempted rape and assault, were later dropped.
Greenwood joined De Zerbi’s Marseille in July 2024 and last November, De Zerbi described Greenwood as a ‘good guy’ who had paid a ‘heavy price’. Women of the Lane were one of several groups which said De Zerbi’s comments raised ‘serious questions about judgement and leadership’.
Those will be questions for De Zerbi to answer should he take over in north London. Managers and clubs too often look the other way in the name of protecting an asset, particularly when that asset might be worth somewhere in the region of £40m and De Zerbi was no different.
But just in case he does not understand the strength of feeling about the Greenwood case that still exists in this country, he should be left in no doubt he should not seek to renew his association with Greenwood in the Premier League.
If De Zerbi ever attempts to sign Greenwood for Spurs, his reign at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would end swiftly in a fury of protests. Greenwood’s rehabilitation may continue in France but he will never play at the top level in England again.
