Words dont mean what they used to. Epic used to be reserved for four-hour Western movies, not TikTok videos that happen to have classical music in the background. Decadent used to refer to the fall of a civilisation: now it just means really chocolatey.
Similarly, the so-called big characters in football have been neutered. Long ago, a big character was someone who fought the law or set their bathroom alight on bonfire night. Now, the title is reserved for a player who refuses a substitution with good grace, argues publicly with their own manager or isnt afraid to confront fans at full-time.
We are in a Big Character Drought, confirmed, with conversations about Jude Bellinghams behaviour enough to dominate back pages for a week. Not an ostrich in sight, either. One mini-fallout with your boss is all it takes these days for your personality to be questioned.
Bellingham was unhappy with being substituted in Englands 2-0 win, and he reacted a little petulantly. Who knows if it upset any of his team-mates?
But to view things purely from his perspective, he's hardly the first player to have reacted like this and given the context, it's not come out of the blue. After Thomas Tuchels comments last month that the England man wouldnt have been selected even if hed have been fit, the midfielder put in a game-winning performance in the Clasico, earned his recall, and was still left out against Serbia. With just one more competitive chance to prove his worth to Tuchel, he didnt get the full 90.
Elite footballers dont like that Yet the response has veered from selfish to moron. Tuchel himself says that the Real Madrid star apparently not celebrating Englands second goal is not the image that he wants from his side.
It should be all about the collective, he told a press room in Tirana. And yes, it should. Again, Bellingham isn't in the right for his tantrumette. But the reaction has been undoubtedly harsh.
Perhaps the Golden Generations shoe-horning of the A-list superstars into a flatpack 4-4-2 killed the desire for anything even resembling big characters exacerbated by Euro 2024s sleepwalk to the final with Gareth Southgate cramming as many players your mum had heard of in the side as possible. Yet as soon as the England squad has a bona fide generational talent who expects his place rather than is grateful for the opportunity, the country doesnt know what to do with him.
England are uncomfortable with a figure like Bellingham. We, as a nation, dont like (perceived) arrogance. Yet we need a few players who don't conform to the Boy Scout personality type: Sir Bobby Robson recognised it with Paul Gascoigne; even Southgate noted it playing alongside Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler, despite his reputation as a manager for eschewing anyone too edgy.
Bellingham plays like the country owes him a place on the team sheet and two things can be simultaneously true of that demeanour. Firstly, it doesnt reflect who he is as a person: world-class athletes should not be judged by the body language of the average man on the street, given the standards that they hold themselves to, and while it might rub fans up the wrong way, it doesnt mean hes a moron or a bad team-mate.
And secondly, its worrying that Tuchel doesnt encourage it in small doses anymore.
The England manager had the perfect opportunity this week to tell everyone listening that no, Bellingham shouldnt be happy with being substituted, and that yes, he understands the frustration. He could have told us all that hed be more worried about the 22-year-olds reaction if he nonchalantly shrugged at the rejection of being hauled off for a replacement in Morgan Rogers, who has seemingly impressed the manager more. He had the chance to tell Bellingham to hold onto that fire, to use it as motivation and that England fans should be excited by such depth and competition.
After all, he afforded Kylian Mbappe such grace. After a similar touchline tiff in 2020 when he withdrew the forward, Tuchel claimed, We are not the only club where players react like that.
But rightly or wrongly, he didnt approach Bellinghams grumbles with the same attitude. England have since reacted as England usually do at this sort of thing. And since leaving Paris Saint-Germain, this has become a pattern for Tuchel.
At Chelsea, he very publicly fell out with Romelu Lukaku over concerns over how he was being used: there was no way back for the �100 million striker either and a man who couldve been a genuine title-winner for them was abandoned to the endless loan cycle. In Bavaria, his relationship with one of the Allianzs biggest leaders, Joshua Kimmich, apparently broke down over public concerns of playing him in midfield, with Bayern Munichs dressing room fracturing soon after. He's thrived centrally since but that's not entirely the point.
The point is that somewhere along the line, an Ancelottian attitude altered. The German's nurturing of Neymar in Paris, where the Brazilian boy-king delivered his best football in France and his manager defended him against the wolves, was almost certainly a factor for the Football Association looking to a guy with a track record of coaching superstars. That he almost delivered the holy grail with a dysfunctional band of Galacticos pulling in their own chosen directions is a credit to him but since he peaked in lockdown, Tuchel has avoided that calibre of name altogether.
Jude Bellingham is not cut from the cloth of a typical English box-to-box player; the goal threat of a supercharged Lampard aside. He sidestepped Premier League giants for the Bundesliga, becoming their best player as a teenager and when he joined the biggest club on Earth for a nine-figure fee, he scored on his debut and celebrated like hed been given the keys to the Bernabeu, before leading them to another Champions League title.
Players who faithfully follow instructions to the letter and lead by pure example are worth their weight in gold but players with an on-field ego and ability to match are just as valuable.
Bellingham has the potential to become Englands greatest-ever footballer. His biggest crime, according to some, is that he knows it.
Like all things doused in nostalgia, big characters arent what they used to be but even in the watered-down landscape of the 2020s, theyre necessary to conquer the world. Who cares if Mohamed Salah hated Sadio Mane (allegedly), if Gareth Bales entire career was fuelled by dislike of his employers (allegedly), or if at times, Sergio Ramos and Giorgio Chiellini offered more clotheslining than game-reading (nothing alleged about it)?
Perhaps Tuchel is right to have changed approach, despite his success at PSG. Perhaps he really doesn't even need Bellingham.
Or maybe, Tuchel needs to seize that kind of personality and England, as a country, need to embrace it. Even half a Gazza is better than none.
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