Competition is increasing amongst England’s young stars to win a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad for this summer’s delayed European Championships and Jude Bellingham’s relatively late emergence as a contender has certainly intensified the situation.
Even players in different positions have a degree of rivalry. There are only so many inexperienced players Southgate can afford to include amongst his group, however exciting a prospect they may be, as he balances youth with age and experience.
It was noteworthy, then, that the England manager dampened, slightly, the hype around 17-year-old Bellingham after the midfielder had stood out when coming on as a substitute against San Marino on Thursday night, cautioning that the teenager may yet return to play with England’s Under 21s for spells.
The Borussia Dortmund midfielder has impressed Southgate and his coaches in performances for the Bundesliga side, particularly dominating midfield in two legs of their Champions League win against Sevilla.
Such is the impression Bellingham, who moved to Dortmund from Birmingham City for £20 million last summer, made on Southgate the England manager included him in his latest squad for the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign even though he was expecting Covid-19 restrictions to prevent the player from being able to join them.
But, with permission granted this week, Bellingham was introduced at half-time of England’s Thursday night victory and shone again, albeit against the world’s worst nation.
Nonetheless, Southgate refuses to get carried away. “We saw in his games with Sevilla a level of performance and commitment that really made us think, ‘We want to help him to develop now under us’,” Southgate said.
“And it might be that there are moments where he is in the under-21s again, but at this moment in time, because we don’t know what might happen before the end of the season, we felt this was a good opportunity to work with the seniors, get an understanding of how the team play, and us to get more of an understanding about him. Then it is great to give him another 45 minutes in a World Cup qualifier.”
Southgate is not short of young, exciting options. Phil Foden, the 20-year-old Manchester City midfielder, is a direct competitor of Bellingham’s in central midfield.
Manchester United striker Mason Greenwood, 19, appeared to be closing in on the first-team until form dipped recently and he was included with the most recent England Under 21 group for their Euros. Winger Jadon Sancho, Bellingham’s Dortmund team-mate, is still only 21, let’s not forget.
Chelsea right-back Reece James, 21, who started on Thursday and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, 19, who would have been involved had he not been ruled out with injury, have both played their way into contention this season.
“Those youngsters are getting into really good habits with their clubs and they are playing with top players every day,” Southgate said. “Working with them, they are seeing the very best, close at hand.”
Roy Keane, speaking in his role as pundit, described Southgate as lucky for having all of the options he now has available. But the England manager pointed out that he and his coaches had actively sought to give young players opportunities helping to aid their development.
“We have got some exciting players but I think one of the reasons there is an awareness of that is that we have played a part in helping them develop,” he said. “We have given then opportunities at a really, really young and informative stage.
“We have increased the pool of players available to us, rather than go with tried and tested Premier League players, we have looked at players who might not be ready to win now but might be ready for that in the future. We feel like that has been the right thing to do.
“It is always great to have good players – you would always much rather have that situation than not. But in a lot of cases, we are still talking about potential and that is a dangerous thing because sometimes that potential is fulfilled and sometimes it isn’t.
“As a team we have got to make sure that the standards that we showed against San Marino against a different level of opposition, we have to show those standards every day and take that into matches.”
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