It was on the day he named his first England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia that Thomas Tuchel hinted he had an eye on Jude Bellingham’s temperament.
Asked if he was aware that Jordan Henderson had missed Ajax’s Europa League second-leg thrashing at Eintracht Frankfurt for swearing at the referee in the first leg, Tuchel quickly responded: “Did he? I thought only Jude is doing that.”
The joke was a reference to the red card Bellingham had been shown for Real Madrid against Osasuna that prompted an f-word debate in Spain.