Jude Bellingham

I don't like this guys arrogance but people questioning him and his achievements at 21 is very questionable in the extreme.
 
I don't like this guys arrogance but people questioning him and his achievements at 21 is very questionable in the extreme.
I think regarding his achievements people are (well I am) more questioning whether he warranted them (the voted for awards) and how big/influential a role he played (in a football sense) in the team won ones.

There's no doubting that the lad has certain footballing talents and attributes, but it just feels like a global marketing exercise that he's been swept up in, everybody vote now and the "Britain's got Talent"-winner gets the Christmas number 1! Feels like he's being wrung out as quickly as possible for all the money anybody (and their dogs) can make off him and unfortunately either the kid's happy with this or he can't see it for what it is. Whichever, it appears that he now thinks he's fucking Elvis when he's actually the tall one out of Liberty-X.
 
I think regarding his achievements people are (well I am) more questioning whether he warranted them (the voted for awards) and how big/influential a role he played (in a football sense) in the team won ones.

There's no doubting that the lad has certain footballing talents and attributes, but it just feels like a global marketing exercise that he's been swept up in, everybody vote now and the "Britain's got Talent"-winner gets the Christmas number 1! Feels like he's being wrung out as quickly as possible for all the money anybody (and their dogs) can make off him and unfortunately either the kid's happy with this or he can't see it for what it is. Whichever, it appears that he now thinks he's fucking Elvis when he's actually the tall one out of Liberty-X.
I agree but I look beyond the awards and commercial bullsh1t.

The fact remains he went as a teenager to Germany and was excellent, he then backed his talent and went to Madrid, and they are a very difficult club to play for, enormous pressures etc.

And again he has had superb success, his early form was superb.

His attitude and arrogance leave a bad taste but he has earned the right, his only issue is he has set high standards and they have to be maintained and improved upon.

His form dipped considerably towards the end of the season but at 21 than is probably to be expected.
 
I don't like this guys arrogance but people questioning him and his achievements at 21 is very questionable in the extreme.
He clearly is a talent.

My objection to the attention he receives goes beyond him and into the obsession with individuals beyond teamplay. When I listen to English football commentary, I hear constant analysis of individual players, oft expressed as legends of the game. I hear matches between clubs debased to headlines such as manager (insert name) Vs manager, or player Vs player.
Bellingham is a fine prospect who has achieved a lot in a short space of time. As often happens, the hype goes beyond the ability and it is abundantly clear that he has a lot to learn: bar moments of excellence, he has been very disappointing and continually attempts to do too much despite others in better positions to receive the ball from him. He has tremendous athletic ability which can promote young players well beyond their technical ability. I suspect he will not go on to be a great without a combination of a willingness to listen and the rigorous and insightful coaching he needs.
 
I agree but I look beyond the awards and commercial bullsh1t.

The fact remains he went as a teenager to Germany and was excellent, he then backed his talent and went to Madrid, and they are a very difficult club to play for, enormous pressures etc.

And again he has had superb success, his early form was superb.

His attitude and arrogance leave a bad taste but he has earned the right, his only issue is he has set high standards and they have to be maintained and improved upon.

His form dipped considerably towards the end of the season but at 21 than is probably to be expected.

It's just whether his form dipped because of a long season, fatigue etc, or because he's been found out a bit and teams have worked out how to cope with him better.

Either way, like you said, he needs to find ways to improve his game - especially now that Mbappe is at Madrid and will be the new flavour of the month. Quite possible Bellingham has to influence games from the bench for them next season if he doesn't have the perfect attitude.
 
He clearly is a talent.

My objection to the attention he receives goes beyond him and into the obsession with individuals beyond teamplay. When I listen to English football commentary, I hear constant analysis of individual players, oft expressed as legends of the game. I hear matches between clubs debased to headlines such as manager (insert name) Vs manager, or player Vs player.
Bellingham is a fine prospect who has achieved a lot in a short space of time. As often happens, the hype goes beyond the ability and it is abundantly clear that he has a lot to learn: bar moments of excellence, he has been very disappointing and continually attempts to do too much despite others in better positions to receive the ball from him. He has tremendous athletic ability which can promote young players well beyond their technical ability. I suspect he will not go on to be a great without a combination of a willingness to listen and the rigorous and insightful coaching he needs.
Always been the case and even more so .now


Keegan, Robson, Beckham, Gerrard there have always been the "favorites" domestic football is no different, just look at Rodri, head and shoulders the best player in world football at this time but you don't here or see him but that's his wish and desire, he talks of the pitch, the great players do just that.
 
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It's just whether his form dipped because of a long season, fatigue etc, or because he's been found out a bit and teams have worked out how to cope with him better.

Either way, like you said, he needs to find ways to improve his game - especially now that Mbappe is at Madrid and will be the new flavour of the month. Quite possible Bellingham has to influence games from the bench for them next season if he doesn't have the perfect attitude.
Far. far too early to say that.
 
It's just whether his form dipped because of a long season, fatigue etc, or because he's been found out a bit and teams have worked out how to cope with him better.

Either way, like you said, he needs to find ways to improve his game - especially now that Mbappe is at Madrid and will be the new flavour of the month. Quite possible Bellingham has to influence games from the bench for them next season if he doesn't have the perfect attitude.

I think he's been found out. When he first started playing for Madrid he was mainly used as a striker/false 9 and teams weren't expecting it. He got decent stats (not great stats for a striker role btw) but when teams knew where he was going to play they could mark him properly and stats dropped off a cliff. I think he might struggle starting a game next season as Mbappe is going to be occupying his role which means Bellingham stats will be a hell of a lot worse looking
 
Far. far too early to say that.
Not really.

He's been playing more or less as their number 9. Now they've signed Mbappe. Something has to give.

Guessing they may just move him back to a more standard midfield role for starters, but he's no Kroos and he's no Modric. As a result he'll probably have less goals to help cover any other performance deficiencies, and you know how things go when Madrid get a few bad results...

I think he's good enough to bounce back, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a backwards step for him next season.
 
He clearly is a talent.

My objection to the attention he receives goes beyond him and into the obsession with individuals beyond teamplay. When I listen to English football commentary, I hear constant analysis of individual players, oft expressed as legends of the game. I hear matches between clubs debased to headlines such as manager (insert name) Vs manager, or player Vs player.
Bellingham is a fine prospect who has achieved a lot in a short space of time. As often happens, the hype goes beyond the ability and it is abundantly clear that he has a lot to learn: bar moments of excellence, he has been very disappointing and continually attempts to do too much despite others in better positions to receive the ball from him. He has tremendous athletic ability which can promote young players well beyond their technical ability. I suspect he will not go on to be a great without a combination of a willingness to listen and the rigorous and insightful coaching he needs.

There's an article on him today on the home page of the BBC that is frankly ludicrous. It's not sports journalism and it's not even feature writing, it reads like a paid for promotional piece. If it carries on, he'll go the way of Beckham moving beyond football to just being a highly successful but utterly vacuous celebrity seemingly fueled only by avarice and narcissism. Alternatively he could try concentrating on becoming a more complete footballer to justify the hype, but sadly I'm not holding my breath on that.
 
There's an article on him today in the home page of the BBC that is frankly ludicrous. It's not sports journalism and it's not even feature writing, it reads like a paid for promotional piece. If it carries on, he'll go the way of Beckham moving beyond football to just being a highly successful but utterly vacuous celebrity seemingly fueled only by avarice and narcissism. Alternatively he could try concentrating on becoming a more complete footballer to justify the hype, but sadly I'm not holding my breath on that.
It is our journalism that is the problem. Sports journalism should be about sport - the attainment of excellence - but too often it is more about the personality. He gives them what they want - he is young, good looking, and has achieved way beyond his years. They are seeking the replacements for Messi and Ronaldo, and he needs to be careful not to get caught up because sport and celebrity are often incompatible bedfellows. His two individual moments in this tournament should not overtake the poor general displays he has given. It is not to condemn him and destroy his confidence but it is to highlight how he can take his game to the next level. A proper coach will praise his goals and identify that holding on to the ball for too long has denied teammates good opportunity, and lost possession. This has happened on multiple occasions and it needs to be explained to him that this is both demotivating for his colleagues and dangerous for the team. In short, the team comes before individuals...ALWAYS.
 
It is our journalism that is the problem. Sports journalism should be about sport - the attainment of excellence - but too often it is more about the personality. He gives them what they want - he is young, good looking, and has achieved way beyond his years. They are seeking the replacements for Messi and Ronaldo, and he needs to be careful not to get caught up because sport and celebrity are often incompatible bedfellows. His two individual moments in this tournament should not overtake the poor general displays he has given. It is not to condemn him and destroy his confidence but it is to highlight how he can take his game to the next level. A proper coach will praise his goals and identify that holding on to the ball for too long has denied teammates good opportunity, and lost possession. This has happened on multiple occasions and it needs to be explained to him that this is both demotivating for his colleagues and dangerous for the team. In short, the team comes before individuals...ALWAYS.

It's that much harder these days for top tier footballers to focus on their sport as they are in effect businesses as much as they are sportsmen (I say men because the money is so different from the women's game). You have to hope that the people in his organisation are at least as interested in him as a sports person as they are a revenue generator.
 
Top players today make more money than they could possibly spend in any kind of normal life, and their on-field career is often short, so I think many look for away to extend their pay days and football is all most of them know.

Accordingly, promotional opportunities based around football are low hanging fruit that anyone would seize upon, so one can’t blame them for some level of self-promotion.

However, it’s when the promotion off the field is out of step with their performances on the field that people start to complain.

To be fair to him, it’s hard to suggest that, for his age and what he has achieved over the last 12 months, he is being overly promoted. In fact, it would seem harsh.

The problem for most of us, at present, is that the actual journalistic coverage of him is overly fawning and precious. Any kind of objectivity has been erased, and he has already been crowned as the new Golden Boy of British football.
 
It's that much harder these days for top tier footballers to focus on their sport as they are in effect businesses as much as they are sportsmen (I say men because the money is so different from the women's game). You have to hope that the people in his organisation are at least as interested in him as a sports person as they are a revenue generator.
Indeed. I am a big boxing fan and there are a few young boxers with immense talent who are caught up in the social media world. Financially, it gives them the chance to be set for life, so it is understandable that someone who may have grown up hungry will pursue all they can in the short term. Without the right guidance, and with hangers-on blowing endless smoke up their arses, they may not achieve the sporting excellence that they are capable of. Millions in the bank will not compensate for relative sporting failure, and the regret could lead to real mental health challenges in later years. By then, social media won't be interested in you. By then, the 'friends' will have long moved on. You will be left with your thoughts of what might have been and what you could have achieved. Guidance can bridge the gap between the wisdom of age and the impetuousness of youth.
 
It is our journalism that is the problem.
Absolutely. The celebrity-obsessed media in this country are a total disgrace to their profession. You go online to the Sun or the Mirror and you will perhaps get a nod towards important news items, like the discovery of the dismembered corpses near the Clifton bridge, or the ongoing public ridicule of Joe Biden, but primarily the articles are aimed at the pissants (great word, I must remember to use it in public more often!), the masses, the proles. You might as well read the Beano for all the information you'll get from the tabloids.

Hopefully, there will come a time not too long in the future when the tabloids in this country are finished. The spineless hacks who spent half their lives toadying up to the pisscan and others of his ilk will be on the scrapheap. News is freely available to anyone with internet access -which is probably about 90% of the human race- so you don't need to buy a red-top tabloid, unless of course you'd love to know all about Katie Price's latest boyfriend, the coke scandal of some Hollywood B lister, or what's coming up next on EastEnders.
 
There's an article on him today on the home page of the BBC that is frankly ludicrous. It's not sports journalism and it's not even feature writing, it reads like a paid for promotional piece. If it carries on, he'll go the way of Beckham moving beyond football to just being a highly successful but utterly vacuous celebrity seemingly fueled only by avarice and narcissism. Alternatively he could try concentrating on becoming a more complete footballer to justify the hype, but sadly I'm not holding my breath on that.
What struck me in that BBC article was, in his own words...
"I have to deliver. I have to be that one that kind of tries to decide games, whether its with a goal or an assist, or a match-winning performance."
Is that desire for his team or just vainglory?
 
What struck me in that BBC article was, in his own words...
"I have to deliver. I have to be that one that kind of tries to decide games, whether its with a goal or an assist, or a match-winning performance."
Is that desire for his team or just vainglory?

Considering he shouts "who else?" After scoring, I think we know the answer to your question.
 
What struck me in that BBC article was, in his own words...
"I have to deliver. I have to be that one that kind of tries to decide games, whether its with a goal or an assist, or a match-winning performance."
Is that desire for his team or just vainglory?
Its probably 15 years of playing the game and being surrounded by people telling you its all about you. He now believes it and that reflects on the pitch, his attitude and in what he says. If you want to be that player, you better be fucking good, and i mean Messi, Zidane levels of good and not Bellingham levels. He's riding this England wave at the moment, but that could easily change in an instant the way he's setting himself up.
 
The lads setting himself up for a big fall. Madrid teams evolve and move on quite quickly. His last 5 months performances will not be tolerated going forward and his manager will not be frightened to drop him. He needs to learn to release the ball earlier rather than try to win games on his own.

I foresee a difficult season ahead at Madrid and possibly a big money move back to a club in the UK where I think he will mirror the Pogba model of one good game in six.
 

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