The head coach of the national team is indeed a purgatory job, and sometimes, the transition between heaven and hell is only a few minutes, or even a few seconds. Remember the Champions League final in '98-99? Ferguson watched his team pull Bayern Munich down in three minutes, and said an exaggerated but true sentence for the rest of his life – is this football? It's hell. United would have been underdogs without Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but with those two golden goals, United have become the king of Europe. There's really no reason to talk about it.
Of course, even if Ferguson lost that final, he would not have lost his managerial position. But I don't believe that if England are eliminated by Slovakia, Gareth Southgate will still be in the position of national team manager. So, Southgate was only a few seconds away from the end of class.
It was, of course, Bellingham who saved him.
How did you feel when Bellingham scored with a barb? The question is actually very delicate and complicated, because even many English fans are not too fond of Bellingham at this European Championship. Since last season's rise in Real Madrid, Bellingham's mood and aura have changed dramatically. To be honest, in the England national team, Bellingham can only be regarded as one of the princes in terms of status and qualifications, and Foden and Palmer are on the same level. But in fact, in this European Cup, Bellingham did overstep his authority, robbed Kane of a lot of work, and wantonly added drama to himself, whether it was instructed or subjectively willed, Bellingham took a lot of the right to fire. Some fans even feel that Bellingham does not have the ability to be the king of the ball, but wants to play the way of the king of the ball.
But how? In the first game against Serbia, you could criticize Bellingham for stealing the show all over the game, but it was he who scored the only goal. In this game against Slovakia, you can watch him unhappy in the first 95 minutes, but it was he who scored the equalizer. You just want to hate him, but he immediately shows his performance, so that you can't hate it.
Does this trait remind you of Cristiano Ronaldo back then?
Whether in the national team or in Real Madrid, Ronaldo has almost unlimited right to fire. Many times, the whole team runs in an orderly manner, but once the ball reaches his feet, the clue is immediately broken, and the rhythm changes all of a sudden. I'm sure even Real Madrid fans are sometimes a little annoyed when they see the president doing this.
But Ronaldo always plays the role of the terminator at the most critical moment, making the condemnation that others are about to cry out swallow back into his stomach. As Asprilla said back then, Ronaldo's style of play is indeed very unique, but it's hard for me to say no to players who score forty or fifty goals in a season.
Although the position is different and the style is different, Bellingham now, in some moments, is indeed very much like Ronaldo. You can accuse him of disrupting the rhythm of the whole team, or you can accuse him of adding drama to himself indiscriminately, or even stealing the drama of his teammates. But when a series of denunciations are about to erupt, he immediately presents you with a performance sheet that you can't refuse, even a life-saving performance sheet, what else can you say? If you talk too much, it's really hypocritical.
Existence is reasonable. Bellingham may not be the same, but at the most critical moment, when all the problems are solved, everything becomes reasonable. For example, the person who stood in that position for 95 minutes, why is he? Also, if you change someone, standing there, will you choose a barb? Further, if another person chooses the barb, will he score a goal?
This barb, the time, the place, and the people (yes, not the people, but the people), are all together. Like Ronaldo, Bellingham also has a bit of a sense of déjà vu as the chosen one. What is the Chosen One? That's the kind of thing, I don't like it, but I can solve the problem, attention, it can really be solved.
In addition, the Chosen One has another connotation - the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, how much suspense is there at present?