28 Nov 2024 23:30:08
Question for eds001 if I may.
You were/ are a big fan of Bellingham and I've been watching him closely over the last 12/ 18 months, I'm really not seeing it at the moment, hands thrown up in frustration, not digging in, I don't know but something seems off with him and indeed Mbappe, do you think RM have some serious problems with egos, or is something else going on .
Cheers.
{Ed001's Note - this is better sent to the Real Madrid page mate.}
29 Nov 2024 07:30:44
Its a phase which will hopefully instill some humility into him. A few bumps in the road on the road to greatness will do him some good.
29 Nov 2024 07:52:57
Bellingham is having to adjust his game to fit mbappe coming into the lineup, previously he was the main offensive threat for Madrid making late runs into the box and was always in and around the opposition area, now he’s having to do extra work off the ball with mbappe not contributing anything in that respect and he’s also not taking up positions further up the field anywhere near as often. I think he’s only scored one or two goals in la liga this season?
29 Nov 2024 09:44:52
I've said many times on here that I disagree with paying big money for u21 players.
I've seen too many Michael Johnson, Jack Wilshere, Ross Barkley, Mason Greenwood, Adam Johnson, Jese Lingard, Marcus Rashford, David Bentley, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Jon Flanagan, Jordan Ibe, Luke Shaw and Dele Alli stories. The amount of players who completely fail to live up to the hype they build up around them aged 17-21, is genuinely staggering when you actually go through it.
Bellingham has only been off it for a few months so I'm not putting him in that bracket yet by a long long way, to be very clear. But if we had a near £100m investment riding on him, I'd be a bit nervous right now. He looked like a Championship player on Wednesday night.
29 Nov 2024 10:11:37
I think Bellingham is safe to say that his career to date has probably outshone that list MK even if you combined them all mate.
I don't think Bellingham is going to be in the Zidane etc special mould but he's closer to it than he is to some of the names mentioned.
29 Nov 2024 10:15:38
That's a hell of a list mk in fairness!
29 Nov 2024 10:27:21
He’s 21 guys! Inconsistency is part of the package at that age.
He smashed it last season so I think everyone is a bit quick to jump on him.
The issue with most of your examples MK is many of them were overhyped and never had the ability to be as good as people made out.
We love bigging up our own in this country, and also love tearing people down the second they falter.
29 Nov 2024 10:42:01
I remember being genuinely gutted when United got Phil Jones ahead of us ?♂️?♂️?♂️.
29 Nov 2024 11:01:17
On his day he is a great player but I'm not a big fan of him as a person. He exudes arrogance and entitlement and the way he treats his teammates at times is horrendous. He is obviously still young so he has plenty of time to work on his flaws.
29 Nov 2024 11:43:40
It’s funny how people are willing to allow Bellingham his inconsistencies because of his age but jumped on Gravenberch last season and claimed he wasn’t good enough and should be sold. I guess emotions are higher and reactions more knee jerk when you have skin in the game.
For me the jury is out on Bellingham. I said on a previous post I think he’s got a bit too big for his boots and forgotten what’s got him there in the first place as so many of them do when the money starts rolling in. He seems an intelligent kid though and I would expect him to come good once he realises it’s his attitude that’s the problem. Arrogance is great but you have to back it up and at the moment he’s not. He needs to forget about telling everyone how good he is, knuckle down and show people how good he is. Which I think he will in the end.
29 Nov 2024 11:54:16
Bellingham is great JK23/ Shaq, but he's also very over hyped. He's been called generational since he was 16 years old and had a shirt number retired for him. How many actual generational players have there been? Pele, Maradona and Messi are for sure but other than that has anybody else really stood out and looked liked they were not human and deserved to be considered a once in a generation freak of nature? I think R9 threatened to reach that level, but was robbed by injury. So you're talking 3 maybe 4 players in living memory who genuinely deserve that accolade.
This is the first time in Bellingham's career that he's not been on a upward trajectory, so it'll be fascinating to see how he reacts to adversity. It's very easy to fake an elite mentality when everything is going well.
29 Nov 2024 11:58:15
It’s probably just as easy to pick a list of successful transfers too. Ferdinand Rooney lampard ( can’t remember his fee) etc. the lad is having a bit of a dry patch quality player I’d have him.
29 Nov 2024 12:40:47
Not denying that John, but it's so unpredictable with young kids. You never know how they'll react to their first tough test in terms of an injury, a scandal, or loss of form, being dropped etc. At least with singing players a bit older you've got more history to assess. I'm not saying we should never sign anybody under 21, I'm just saying you have to consider the greater risk due to a lack of evidence that they can deal with adversity. There's no denying Bellingham can handle pressure, but can he handle scrutiny? It's a different kettle of fish and for the first time in his career, people are starting to ask questions of him. I would tend to agree this will just be a minor dry patch, but he's got to come out of it and prove that still.
29 Nov 2024 12:42:22
MK 100% agree there and I honestly couldn’t tell you if he’s a generational talent or not as I’ve probably seen about a handful of 90 mins games he’s been involved in but lots of highlights.
I’m not overly concerned about other players inconsistencies as I don’t pay money to go and watch them on match day. Nor support or wish them to do well like I do LFC players.
29 Nov 2024 14:48:51
Isn't Trent called a generational talent on here most weeks?
29 Nov 2024 18:52:12
Gerrard was a generational talent. It’s very unlikely we’ll see another midfield player like him for a very long time. He played for his hometown club for pretty much his entire career too and carried us for years.
I think he’s one of the best midfielders the world has ever seen but he’ll never get the credit he is due because for most of his career he was surrounded by bang average players and so didn’t win enough big trophies.
He also played in an England team that was constantly imploding due to club rivalries within the camp so didn’t get to show what he can do on an international stage either.
For me though he’s up there with the best midfielders I’ve ever seen both in and before my lifetime.
29 Nov 2024 19:08:22
Well I started this and I'd like to add I thought his post match interview was humble, honest and very mature for a guy of his age.
Furthermore I think there's more going on at real than we know, there was still some talent out there despite the injuries and they just didn't perform, or perhaps we didn't let them.
29 Nov 2024 19:32:12
I thought his post match interview was a bit cringy actually Idontlooklikeklopp.
He’s always come across well in front of the media but to say he thought we were more up for it than them was completely the wrong thing to say and if I was his team mate I’d be fuming.
It’s not his place to speak for the rest of his team mates and like has been said he’s only 21 so you have a 21 year old telling the world that an experienced international like Rudiger (for example) wasn’t up for it which for me, in my playing days was the worst thing you could ever accuse me of.
Again it shows his arrogance that he thinks he’s important enough to make that statement.
30 Nov 2024 10:08:33
Madrid have a lot of very good players but they don’t have a team, or so it seems to me.