Jude Bellingham destroyed twice by Daily Mail even though ‘elephant’ is injured

You may well have seen Oliver Holt’s piece in Saturday’s Daily Mail exposing ‘the dark side of Mark Bellingham’ (father of Jude and Jobe) and his ‘jaw-dropping tirades’.

Mediawatch certainly has sympathy for all those who may have faced the wrath of Bellingham Snr, who appears to have something of a hair-trigger temper.

You might well wonder why that’s a subject for the sports pages of a national newspaper, but then Holt’s real beef with the Bellinghams is swiftly exposed: Jude’s reluctance to play the media game.

Consider this, for example: Jude Bellingham made his senior England debut in November 2020 and has won 44 caps in the last five years and yet he has never once spoken to the English media in the informal briefings routinely organised by the FA in the build-up to an international. Every other player steps up. Jude fulfils his contractual obligations. Nothing more.

Some may think that utterly unimportant. There are even some sports journalists who think press conferences tiresome and irrelevant, although they are often the same journalists who use the information gleaned from those press conferences in their own pieces.

Nice little drive-by there on journalists who realise that press conferences are widely available online and do not have the time or the expenses to travel to every one. You know who you are.

So Holt concedes that ‘Jude fulfills his contractual obligations’ and yet this is somehow not enough.

More pertinently, every other current England footballer fulfils media duties before games. Some believe Mark Bellingham’s hostility towards the media and Jude’s reluctance to speak to the England media outside his contractual obligations has become a damaging point of division within the squad. Other England players have wondered why Jude Bellingham should be a special case.

And still others might have read quotes from Bellingham that he made in November 2024 and know exactly why he has decided not to answer questions unless they are part of his ‘contractual obligations’. He was very articulate in his reasoning:

“I think one of the big criticisms of me was that I didn’t speak to the media, I didn’t want to do any press conferences. I think that was reported in a way that made it sound like I think I’m above it. It’s not that at all.

“I had some personal things going on where journalists had gone to go and see members of my family whilst I was at the tournament – they went to visit my grandparents. It’s something I’ve kept to myself.

“I don’t think that’s fair. I think that crosses the line of respect. I think that’s where, for me, I took it a little bit personally and decided that I’ll just focus on the football and try and let that do the talking, instead of talking in the press to people that seemingly don’t respect me.

“That was a big thing for me. I think my family comes first. My nan didn’t want to leave her house for the whole summer, bless her.

“So I think maybe I should have communicated that before so people understood my situation, but that was a little bit more personal to me and that’s why I decided not to, [and] just to keep my mouth shut.”

Maybe he should have communicated that before. But then perhaps it would just be ignored as Holt has chosen to do now.

Also, and this seems important, there are probably about 27 people in the whole world who give a single solitary sh*t that Bellingham does not speak to the English media outside of his ‘contractual obligations’. And as Holt concedes:

Off the field, Mark Bellingham and his wife, Denise, have done a wonderful job of bringing up their boys. Their sons are articulate, charming and humble. They treat people, whatever their rank or status, with respect.

But there are also concerns that Jude has started to see enemies where there are none. Last November, he said he felt he had been made a scapegoat for England’s failure to win Euro 2024, a comment that was met with widespread puzzlement.

Ah, you noted the ‘scapegoat’ part of that extensive interview but not the bit where he explained why he ducks talking to the media? Odd that.

And again, it’s worth noting that Holt uses the phrase ‘contractual obligations’ (or similar) three times in his column. It’s an awful lot of grief to give a man for doing his job and no more.

Tuesday brings another England game so the Daily Mail go back for another attack on the Bellinghams:

The hostile Team Bellingham won’t like this – but here’s the uncomfortable truth that needs saying about Jude and England, writes CRAIG HOPE

And what’s that ‘uncomfortable truth’? Mediawatch has read the piece several times and it seems like the ‘uncomfortable truth’ that ‘hostile Team Bellingham won’t like’ is that – brace yourselves – England are not very good. We told you to brace yourselves.

It all feels rather like the Mail wanted to double down on the Bellinghams and Hope has clasped onto the life raft of an England fan claiming that England cannot win the World Cup without the Real Madrid midfielder.

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.

Well we know that; they’re not even close to being as good as Spain or Argentina. But we’re still not clear why this needed another Bellingham headline. Especially as ‘the 22-year-old played in the 3-1 defeat by Senegal this summer’ but only played 20 minutes of that match.

And then it becomes obvious.: the English media is as ever obsessed with how the English media is perceived.

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.

A ‘swipe at the media’? You’ve imagined that, fella. What Tuchel said last week was this: “I fully understood and understand that it is my responsibility that I created these headlines. I am sorry for the upset and for the headlines I created. I am experienced enough, I should have known better. I should have done better.”

He genuinely could not have made it clearer that it was his fault. And that he was entirely responsible for the ‘headlines created’.

And the Mail have the gall to say that Bellingham ‘sees danger in the shadows that did not really exist’.

And now it turns out that England are a bit sh*t now because of 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.

Sorry but what? England reached a major tournament final little over a year ago with Bellingham part of that team. If the Southgate ethos has ‘slowly unravelled’, it is because Southgate has left.

Hope then quotes captain Harry Kane as saying ‘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’.

No because, as Kane very clearly said, this is a “newish team” – only four of the players who started v Andorra on Saturday started the European Championship final just 14 months ago.

Are we blaming that on the ‘hostile Bellinghams’ too? They should be ashamed.