England are uncomfortable with Jude Bellingham: and Thomas Tuchel will never win anything while that's the case

"Words don't 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."

"Bellingham was unhappy with being substituted in England's 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 Tuchel's comments last month that the England man wouldn't have been selected even if he'd have been fit,"

Many words that once carried gravitas have been diluted into casual usage. The archetype of the football 'big character' has diminished from flamboyant, law-defying figures to players who briefly resist substitutions or argue with managers. Paul Gascoigne's outlandish anecdotes exemplify an older era of wild behaviour and cultural swagger. Contemporary stars receive swift moral judgment for minor displays of frustration, as exemplified by Jude Bellingham's reaction to a substitution after complex selection dynamics with Thomas Tuchel. Media and public appetite now equates a momentary petulance with egotism, while truly eccentric antics appear increasingly rare in modern professional football.

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