England beat Senegal and Jude Bellingham was phenomenal, which is a whole load of Jude Bellingham content if you run a Liverpool website…
French missing
Message to newspaper sub-editors: If it takes a full 20 minutes of contemplation and you still have to ask somebody to explain, the headline does not work.
Monday’s EXPRESS Sport: “Yes Oui Kane” #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/Woy2YtPj9W
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) December 4, 2022
‘Yes we can’ apparently.
You really, really shouldn’t have.
We came here to PARTY!
Now England have beaten Senegal, the real work begins by the media: How can we turn this into clicks beyond the mere matter of football? The answer: Pretend they had a massive f*** off party to celebrate.
(They didn’t).
‘Inside England’s wild celebrations after World Cup win over Senegal including hotel party and dressing room jubilation’
The juxtaposition of ‘wild celebrations’ and ‘hotel party’ scream wine (well, beer), women and song. What it doesn’t scream is the England players being greeted at their Qatari hotel by staff clad in England shirts. No alcohol in sight. No women in sight. Just some dancing and some flags. There was no party and The Sun absolutely bloody know this; they backtrack as quickly as the very first sentence…
‘ENGLAND were given a rousing welcome back to their team hotel after setting up a World Cup quarter-final clash with France last night.’
‘Hotel party’?!
‘Upon arriving back to their Souq Al-Wakra hotel base in the early hours of the morning, Gareth Southgate’s men were given a raucous reception.
‘Hotel staff donned England shirts as they waved flags and cheered the stars back to base.’
Wild celebrations!? Hotel party!?
‘Luke Shaw got in on the celebrations, while Kyle Walker danced as he theatrically waved a Union Jack aloft.’
Nope. It’s a St. George’s flag. But we’re guessing that nobody else is reading by this juncture, having very quickly discovered there was no ‘party’, just a whole bunch of Qatari hotel workers paid to celebrate.
When you walk…
Obviously the real clicks in the wake of England’s win over Senegal are in speculation that Jude Bellingham is absolutely definitely joining Liverpool. It’s nailed on.
‘Jude Bellingham makes feelings on Liverpool increasingly clear amid World Cup heroics’ – Mirror.
And how has he made his feelings on Liverpool ‘increasingly clear’ while never actually mentioning Liverpool? It’s quite the skill.
‘Firstly came his appreciation of club legend Steven Gerrard. Speaking to the BBC ahead of England’s opening World Cup match, Bellingham was asked who his Three Lions heroes were. “Gerrard was probably my biggest one,” he replied. “The character he has, besides the football, is world class and then you add on his ability and it’s a joke really.”‘
This is already pretty compelling evidence. You would never expect an English central midfielder to admire probably the best English central midfielder of the last 20 years. What else?
‘Next came Bellingham’s closeness with Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is yet to feature for England at the World Cup, but is out in Qatar with the squad.’
Wow. That really does make his ‘feelings on Liverpool increasingly clear’. He will be releasing a cover version of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ by the end of the week.
And if that wasn’t enough…
‘Bellingham is not just close with Alexander-Arnold – he is also developing a great relationship with Liverpool skipper Henderson. After assisting his goal against Senegal, the duo shared an intense celebration, which got tongues wagging on Merseyside.’
Young man makes friends with colleagues when away from his family. When is he getting the YNWA tattoo?
Echo beach
It doesn’t end there, obviously, and the Liverpool Echo are throwing absolutely everything at this.
It’s worth noting at this point that Liverpool are just one of the clubs interested in Bellingham and that they currently sit in sixth, a full seven points outside the Champions League places.
And yet, all these stories appear on the Liverpool FC homepage of the Echo:
‘Liverpool news and takeover LIVE – Saudi-Qatar consortium latest, Jude Bellingham claim, Luis Diaz return’
”Ridiculous’ – Jude Bellingham sends blunt message over Liverpool star Jordan Henderson’
‘What Trent Alexander-Arnold did at full time as another message sent to Jude Bellingham’
‘Jamie Carragher makes John Henry ‘anxious’ claim over Liverpool target Jude Bellingham’
‘Jordan Henderson has just answered his England critics perfectly and Jude Bellingham verdict proves it’
‘Phil Foden makes huge Jude Bellingham prediction after England masterclass amid Liverpool transfer links’
‘England player ratings as Jude Bellingham and Jordan Henderson shine and two others impress against Senegal’
‘Jordan Henderson and Jude Bellingham have just given Liverpool fans a glimpse into their transfer dream’
‘Jude Bellingham transfer message sent to Liverpool as Gary Neville and Roy Keane make ‘superstar’ prediction’
Nine headlines about a player who does not play for Liverpool and possibly never will. Are Liverpool actually on the verge of winning the World Cup? This really will mean more.
Some chance
This is sweet from the Manchester Evening News…
‘Manchester United might only have one last chance at signing Jude Bellingham’
Is the ‘last chance’ that he suffers some sort of brain injury?
READ MORE: Which club will sign Jude Bellingham? The whys and why nots for Liverpool, Man Utd, Real and others…