IAN LADYMAN: Bellingham is deluded if he thinks he was England’s Euros scapegoat

It is not uncommon for footballers to become exhausted and a little out of emotional shape due to the pressures and demands of their job. It's a good life, but it's a hard life and things don't always turn out the way they should. However, it is very unusual for this to happen to a footballer at the age of 21. Yet this is the world that now seems to be inhabited by Jude Bellingham.

How utterly deflating it was to listen to Bellingham's speech ahead of Real Madrid's Champions League match against Liverpool this week. In Bellingham's mind he has been made a scapegoat for England's failure to play well at the European Championship last summer. In Bellingham's mind, he is judged and judged differently than everyone else.

“I was a little mistreated compared to what I contributed,” he said.

It would be interesting to know what Harry Kane thinks about that. Or Phil Foden. Or indeed Gareth Southgate. Because they have also received quite a bit of that in Germany and have dealt with it with equanimity. Kane, the England captain, still gets it as it happens. Just like he was at the World Cup in Qatar and also at the postponed 2021 European Championship.

Others have been there recently. Thank God, Harry Maguire has been there. As for what happened to Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho after missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final, we really don't need to go back to that. But suffice it to say, we all remember it.

“Who else?” Bellingham said to the crowd after scoring that great equalizer against Slovakia in Gelsenkirchen and indeed into the camera at the end of a documentary subsequently released about last season by Bellingham Media Ltd. Well, everyone else, as it happens, Jude. It is a professional team sport. All together and all that.

But for Bellingham – English football's much-lauded and much-admired new superstar – things have been even worse for him. He is bullied, vilified and singled out. At least in his head.

And this is all very frustrating, and not just because it's not true, but also because we wonder what the next decade will look like for Bellingham if this represents his honest view of the world. It's quite one thing for a player on a team to adopt a bit of a siege mentality to get him through tough times. Everyone hates us, we don't care. It can be very useful. But seeing yourself as a victim is something completely different.

The truth is that Bellingham hasn't had a great summer with England. He wasn't the only one. He scored that wonderful goal, but his overall play was far below his usual standards. He himself admitted this, at least in part.

As for his off-field contributions, it depends who you ask. Two people from the English camp described Bellingham to me this week as a 'nice guy' who is 'down to earth and modest'. That's what they say about him in Madrid too.

Similarly, a few senior England players – one of them quite notable – grew tired of the way they thought he was willing to take a lot of glory by winning a match and not taking enough blame when things didn't work out. They think he has changed since he moved to Madrid.

His bicycle kick against Slovakia was one of his tournament highlights, but so was the way he took out his frustrations on teammates, especially during England's group matches. Body language? That's really important when you're the best player on a team.

Bellingham does not trust the English print media and does not talk to us. And that's fine. Normally there are 22 other England players in a squad at any time. There are plenty of words to go around. I'd rather watch Bellingham than listen to him.

That said, his justification this week was interesting. Bellingham said this was because the media harassed his family during the European Championship. The truth is that Bellingham has never spoken to the English print press, not once.

By the time he got his first call – in 2020 – he had already decided that, or someone had decided it for him. It seemed like a strange decision for a 17-year-old, but it was a stand that was taken and endured.

In his documentary he describes the written press as vultures. Perhaps waiting to feed on its glory. Because that's largely all Bellingham has experienced thus far in his gilded career.

Forty caps for England, a La Liga title, a Spanish Player of the Year award and a Champions League win. It was a glorious parade, which makes you wonder what he'll be like when things really go wrong for a while. Because at some point they will. They always do that.

His documentary is revealing. There is a very strange moment when he is filmed playing pool with his brother Jobe at the English base camp on a day off in Germany and he talks about a family day where 'I don't really want to talk about football' – as he talks about football into the lens of a TV camera. A day off.

There is also some insight. He talks about his desperate fear before last season's Champions League final. In that moment he seems vulnerable and it reminds us of the stress and doubts that so many athletes carry with them. During the European Championships, he admits that the criticism on social media is 'breaking my head'. This is a footballer who cares deeply and seems concerned. We must not overlook that.

But there is also an almost total and rather childish absence of responsibility. Caught on camera making an obscene gesture after scoring against Slovakia and then kicking over a water carrier at the end of the final against Spain, he appears to blame the cameramen. He doesn't seem to regret doing the first thing, especially that he got caught.

The truth is that there was a pool of fifteen or sixteen players and a manager who made England's European Championship campaign what it was. Yet Bellingham talks about himself as if he is the only one caught in the crossfire of criticism and analysis.

He seems to consider himself a special case. It is as irrational as it is delusional and in terms of his own future and even the England national team it is a matter of concern. After all, it won't be long before we need a new captain.

What were the Leicester players thinking?

Football players are allowed to have free time. They are people like all of us, and every now and then we need to let off some steam.

Still, it's hard not to look at that photo of the Leicester players – dressed in fancy dress costumes and slumped on the sofa in a Copenhagen hotel lobby after their Christmas party last Saturday night – and not ask: 'Why?'.

Their manager Steve Cooper had been fired when they got home.

United can learn from their neighbors

Five miles from my house in one direction, the Premier League's Manchester United have just withdrawn concessions on children's tickets. They now cost £66 for a league match.

Four and a half miles in the other direction, Stockport County – who are fourth in League One – charge a fiver for children for Saturday's FA Cup match against Brackley Town.

When my friend took his daughter to Edgeley Park for a recent match against Bolton, the club also provided some children's entertainment before the match and at half-time. During halftime the children met a player.

There is a reason why – against mounting odds – our game further down the pyramid continues to flourish.