Generational talent? Why England are right to give Jude Bellingham the same treatment as Paul Gascoigne & Glenn Hoddle as David James backs Thomas Tuchel's approach

Published Jun. 15, 2026 7:00 a.m. ET

GOAL

'Galactico' Bellingham not assured of starting berth with England

Bellingham has, having

Fierce competition is, however, faced in the No.10 department and there are

Should England be building around players of Bellingham's ability?

Quizzed on whether Bellingham is the

“I think the danger with building around a focal player is that if there are any problems with that player then everything starts to go wrong. Jude is an amazing player, when he's on top of his game then there's pretty much no better player around than Jude Bellingham, but you need everybody to share the load to win a World Cup and I think that what Thomas is looking to do is utilise what he's got in his squad, rather than just focus on one player and get everyone to work around that.

“There will be times where Jude will take control, I'm sure, that's just the quality of the player. But I think the actual set-up is squad-based to maximise the potential for success.”

Hoddle, Gazza & Scholes: Have England wasted certain talents?

James once graced England squads that featured the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes. Plenty of selection posers were faced back then, and

The Three Lions famously failed to make the most of having Tottenham legend Hoddle at their disposal in the 1980s, while the

Pressed on whether England have historically mismanaged players that other countries would have made cornerstones of their respective teams, James added: “Let me just think about success. First of all, we had no success with those players and their ultimate success, i.e. winning trophies.

“I think when you look at successful world teams, you're talking about exceptional talent. I'm not saying Jude Bellingham hasn't got exceptional talent, but France, [Zinedine] Zidane, [Andres] Iniesta for Spain, Lionel Messi for Argentina. But then I would say that they were exceptional in an era, head and shoulders better than anyone else in their respective eras.

“As highly talented as Jude is, and we've already seen in the World Cup the quality of player that they're coming up against, they're at such a high level now, I think the idea of depending on one person to try and give you success now just doesn't work.

“Therefore, you can use them, get the best out of them at certain times, but then you have to adapt to a different strategy, using different players. I think that's what England have got at the moment, the balance with the quality that we don't have to depend on one player.”