Bellingham ‘set up’ by senior England players who were ‘happy’ Real Madrid star took media ‘flak’

Jude Bellingham was ‘set up’ by his more senior England teammates, who were ‘happy’ for the Real Madrid star to bear the brunt of the media criticism at Euro 2024, according to Graeme Souness.

Bellingham scored the opening goal of the tournament for the Three Lions and the memorable overhead kick against Slovakia to keep them in it, but didn’t quite reach the peak displays we have become accustomed to after his outstanding first season with Real Madrid.

Souness claims the 21-year-old was trying to do too much at times when England were chasing the game.

The pundit told Three Up Front , William Hill’s new podcast: “Jude Bellingham has the potential to be a fabulous player. I think what happened was that when England went behind and were chasing a game and things weren’t going well, they ended up trying too hard and taking too many touches.

“I think Jude Bellingham fell into that time and time again. He was taking too many touches and that can be a negative result from trying extra hard.”

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Bellingham was spiky with the media on more than one occasion, describing criticism after mediocre performances as a “pile on”, and Souness believes his teammates should have fronted up to allow the midfielder space to “learn the game”.

“The big players, the leadership group within the England side, were quite happy for Bellingham to take the flak from the media and deal with those difficult questions that were coming his way.

“I felt that he got set up and someone needs to explain to him that he’s a young man learning the game, he’s a mile off being the finished article – he should just keep wanting to learn every day. I’d blame the senior players in the England camp for that.”

Souness was joined by former Premier League striker Troy Deeney, who reckons Bellingham struggled to be a leader like Luka Modric is for Madrid.

“I don’t think Bellingham had a poor tournament,” said Deeney. “I just think our expectations were very high and we went into the tournament thinking we had the best number 10 in Jude – he’s not that yet. That was the expectation having won the league and the Champions League with Real Madrid.

“My observation is that when he’s playing for Madrid, he’s got the likes of Luka Modrić around and those senior players who are the leaders of the group, there’s a huge element of Bellingham doing that for England as that’s what he’s used to seeing.”