{"id":801094,"date":"2026-07-15T04:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801094\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:04:21","slug":"english-thing-to-do-debate-rages-over-journos-baiting-of-star-skippers-response-to-rift-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/801094\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018English thing to do\u2019: Debate rages over journo\u2019s \u2018baiting\u2019 of star, skipper\u2019s response to rift claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explosive comments made by England manager Thomas Tuchel and their star man Jude Bellingham continue to make waves ahead of a blockbuster World Cup semi-final <\/a>with reigning champions Argentina.<\/p>\n

Debate is raging from Newcastle to London after Tuchel, in a post-match interview with ITV Sport reporter Gabriel Clarke, criticised the Three Lions\u2019 performance<\/a>, saying the team was \u201clucky\u201d to win.<\/p>\n

Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commitment is there, but it made life very, very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played, sloppy, lots of safety, not fast enough, not enough,\u201d the German said.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, when interviewing Bellingham, Clarke questioned the midfielder about the manager\u2019s comments, who wasn\u2019t best pleased.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhatever,\u201d Bellingham told ITV Sport, before adding in a later press conference: \u201cMaybe he doesn\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] \u00d8degaard, [Antonio] Nusa, [Alexander] S\u00f8rloth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke, a veteran sports broadcaster who has covered the last six World Cups, has since become public enemy number one in the UK, and accused of trying to create a rift in the team ahead of one of the nation\u2019s most crucial ever matches.<\/p>\n

Speaking on beIN Sports, former Ireland international Jason McAteer accused the 62-year-old of asking a \u201cloaded question\u201d to Bellingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was naughty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he had enough context \u2014 the way he spoke to Jude Bellingham, I think he knew what he was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is history between the player and the manager, we\u2019ve seen that before the squad was announced. There\u2019s all that little history as well, and he knows that, Gabriel Clarke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was just jabbing a little bit and seeing if he could get a response off the back of a very emotional game, a very emotional time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we\u2019ve lost is the context of the conversation that was had between Tuchel [and Clarke].\u201d<\/p>\n

England head coach Thomas Tuchel speaks with Jude Bellingham. (AP Photo\/Ricardo Mazalan)Source: AP<\/p>\n

Broadcaster James Melville wrote on X that Clarke had misinterpreted Tuchel\u2019s criticism, calling it \u201cunnecessarily disruptive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGabriel Clarke\u2019s two interviews with Thomas Tuchel and Jude Bellingham were dreadful,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cTuchel was very clear in his praise for England\u2019s strength of character but he wasn\u2019t happy with the performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cClarke failed to understand Tuchel\u2019s mentality comments. He then gave a misleading follow up to Bellingham which suggested to Bellingham that Tuchel was unhappy with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnnecessarily disruptive and the wrong context of interviewing in two separate interviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

French legend Thierry Henry, meanwhile, felt Clarke\u2019s line of questioning for Tuchel missed the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t understand the questions,\u201d he said on Fox Sports US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy is telling you actually that it was all effort and mentality, and you\u2019re asking about the mentality. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was talking about a technical aspect of the game \u2013 he wasn\u2019t happy with how the players were playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t even need to ask that question \u2013 if he\u2019s changing stuff, it\u2019s because he\u2019s not happy with what\u2019s on the field. And what we cannot doubt with this team is the mentality that they have, and the grit.\u201d<\/p>\n

England captain Harry Kane hit back at accusations of a rift in an interview with BBC Sport, calling the reaction \u201can English thing to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers on the pitch know more than anyone when you\u2019re playing well, when you\u2019re not playing well. That is part and parcel of football \u2014 we understand what the boss meant,\u201d Kane said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing a game, especially a game like that, and you get asked a question, two minutes, five minutes after the final whistle, when he hadn\u2019t really known what the manager\u2019s really said, it\u2019s like \u2018what do you want Jude to say?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to try and create this division. It always seems to be maybe an English mentality, an English thing to do at these major tournaments, but it\u2019s the complete opposite. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe group is where we are because of our togetherness – not just the players but the coach and the staff and everyone who\u2019s involved. <\/p>\n

\u201cThings sometimes get made out so much more than what they really are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan was even more scathing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t he say to Jude Bellingham \u2018he thought your mentality was outstanding, but your performance was poor?\u201d he said on British sports radio station talkSPORT.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would imagine the reasons why he didn\u2019t do that is because that would enable a different response from the player.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows exactly the animals he\u2019s dealing with … we are curating an outcome, and the outcome is there\u2019s a potential, a distinct possibility, a bankable possibility, that Jude Bellingham might take the bait.\u201d<\/p>\n

A viral caller to talkSPORT summed up the public mood by describing Clarke as \u2018an absolute disgrace\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe completely misread Tuchel\u2019s comments about the team playing badly, and then he took that comment and ran with it to a tired and emotional Bellingham,\u201d the caller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just typical of our media: we destroy our heroes, like Gazza [Paul Gascoigne], [Wayne] Rooney and now Jude.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the reaction has been far from one-sided, with a host of journalists and broadcasters leaping to Clarke\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

Chief among them was Piers Morgan, who wrote on X that criticism of the reporter was \u201cabsolute codswallop\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c@gabrielclarke05 did his job, superbly well. He asked the right questions, and got very newsworthy answers,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not his fault that Tuchel decided to go nuclear (which I loved) and then of course he had to ask Bellingham about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan also hit back at Kane\u2019s interview with BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove Harry Kane, but it wasn\u2019t Gabriel Clarke who said England\u2019s performance was poor, it was Thomas Tuchel,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf managers show raw honesty like that \u2014 which I loved \u2014 of course any proper journalist is going to ask the players what they think of what he said!\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in The Telegraph<\/a>, football scribe Alan Tyers called Clarke a \u201cgifted, experienced reporter\u201d and said he was \u2018absolutely within his rights\u2019 to ask Tuchel and Bellingham the questions he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked to me that Tuchel was himself fired-up when he spoke to Clarke\u2026 given that Tuchel had said that to Clarke, what is the reporter supposed to do other than ask Bellingham what he thinks about it?\u201d Tyers asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is, as Roy Keane might put it, literally his job\u2026 he does not work for the England team. He works for ITV and his most important duties are to the viewers and his own integrity, of which he has plenty.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s clash with Argentina in Atlanta gives them a chance to end a 60-year wait for a World Cup final berth, having last made the decider in 1966 in a 4-2 win over West Germany for their one and only title.<\/p>\n

Awaiting the victor will be Spain, who comfortably accounted for France 2-0<\/a> in a surprisingly one-sided semi-final to leave them one win away from matching their 2010 World Cup triumph in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explosive comments made by England manager Thomas Tuchel and their star man Jude Bellingham continue to make waves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-801094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}