PHIL YOUR BOOTS
Foden and Bellingham buzzing as Gazza journey shows route to top
ALBANIA V ENGLAND 5PM, TOMORROW By Matthew Dunn
ENGLISH football waited 32 years for the next Paul Gascoigne and then, all of a sudden, two come along together. To see Jude Bellingham stood next to Phil Foden atWembley onThursday waiting to start the second half must have warmed the hearts of armchair fans across the country.
Albania are next for England tomorrow and it was the same opponents in 1989 when the magic started to happen for the first time around with Gascoigne.
“The Albanian defence was there to be attacked and he did it,” said commentator John Motson after the midfielder’s first England goal. “This really is a shining talent we’re watching, perhaps in its infancy in international terms.”
It would have taken a crowbar to remove the beaming smile from Sir Bobby Robson’s face. “He’s lacking in confidence, isn’t he the boy?” he joked. “We have a precocious talent.” Who is to say that in Tirana one of these two cannot start something that leads to a memorable Euro 2020?
Gareth Southgate is a firm believer that the only thing Bellingham lacks is a more appropriate stage.
“The only disappointment for Jude is that he is not playing in front of 80,000 fans at Dortmund every week, which would be another incredible experience,” said the England boss.
“But we saw in his games with Sevilla recently a level of performance and commitment that really made us think, ‘We want to help him to develop now under us’.”
And as for Foden’s confidence... “Hopefully, we will win the league
with City and maybe a couple more trophies this year,” he said of his aims for the rest of season.
Simple enough, but not exactly Pep Guardiola’s one game at a time mantra either. But Foden is taking nothing for granted.
“It’s really important to be consistent with your club and I want to just take that form for my club into England as well,” he said.
“Some players in the past have struggled with performing for their clubs and with England as well so I want to take the form I have shown with my club into England and, hopefully, just play the same way and do what I do best. When you are in a good run of form your confidence is always higher than normal so, yes, I feel full of confidence at the moment and I am really enjoying my game.”
Those Iceland hotel misdemeanours from last September already seem a long way back and Foden is forthright and unflappable as he gives careful consideration to every question that is put to him.
“Is this the most confident I have felt in my career?” he said. “Probably...” Unstoppable?
“It’s hard to say unstoppable but I feel like I am full of confidence, yes.”
As with Gascoigne all those years ago, it is the daunting task of the Albania defence to discover if Foden is unstoppable too.