Birmingham City hasn't always been the most logical destination for our thoughts when talking about smart decision-making in football. But they've had their moments and two in particular are looking better with every tick and tick heading into 2024.
Giving away Jude Bellingham's number 22 shirt three and a half years ago felt rather silly at the time. It was a little premature for a 17-year-old kid after one senior season, but it doesn't seem so crazy now, right?
The same goes for the brainwave that happened shortly before when they picked a random number on his back. It's an old story, but one of the best in the genre, utilizing the ingenuity of Mike Dodds, their former academy coach, who saw the boy under his wing as a No. 4, a No. 8 and a No. .10, brought together in one precocious gem. . He could occupy midfield, roam between spaces and create – add them up and you have 22.
I love that story and those who follow Birmingham would no doubt wish such clever thinking would revisit their staff. They were miles ahead of the curve in Bellingham, just as they seemed somewhat behind it in terms of the managerial skills of Wayne Rooney, a man who also knows what it means to be seen as the future.
That can be suffocating pressure. But Rooney was able to surf it as a player and create a fantastic body of work. Ultimately, he wasn't Cristiano Ronaldo, but who but Lionel Messi of the past decades can say he was?
Jude Bellingham has continued his monumental rise throughout the calendar year
With the European Championship in 2024, next year could be a big one for the England and Real Madrid star
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For all sensible minds, Rooney is a great example of English football past. Michael Owen, as impressive as Bellingham and Rooney in his early days, could have gotten there too, but didn't. His hamstrings and knees did not allow for the longevity of his genius and there is a message in there about the dangers of picking. one thing is certain. In sports they don't really exist.
Therefore, as we enter 2024, we may choose to impose some margins on our expectations for Bellingham, because that is what history tells us.
But where's the fun in that? If wild sources of optimism are not taken into account, sports become a colossal waste of time. And when is there a better time for wild sources of optimism than the dawn of a new year with a European Championship?
We're long past the point of viewing Bellingham as an emerging talent. That was the story of Birmingham and his Borussia Dortmund years were our time of discovery, as we started reading from the same page as Dodds.
But at Real Madrid, in the here and now, he pushes the limits of his capabilities with every match. With every goal from midfield. With the steps through tight alleys and those little side steps. With his presence of mind and vision. With the way they love him after just six months in Madrid: Gareth Bale won the Champions League five times and never came close.
The least that can be said about Bellingham's acclimatization to the big event in 2023 is that in his new circumstances he rode like Rooney did at Manchester United. Most importantly, he is the best player in world football right now, a man who is serenaded at the Bernabeu with renditions of the Beatles and rocks like the Stones everywhere on the pitch, from four to eight to ten. really know where this will lead in the fullness of a career – an Owen, with all its undertones of regret, or a Steven Gerrard, a Rooney, a Gazza, or something even better?
The joy lies in discovering and in the increasing sense that 2024 could be a year in which so much is on paper. It is a year in which Real will start at the top of La Liga after failing to drop a point in the Champions League group stages and in which Bellingham will lead the way for the Ballon d'Or.
Birmingham City's decision to retire Bellingham's number 22 shirt felt rather foolish at the time, but seems justified since its astronomical success
Bellingham has a lot of similarities with Wayne Rooney and how he came onto the scene
Many of these developments will play out before us in highlight packages and fleeting headlines, which may be the only shame of this long-distance relationship. We saw him score a goal from 25 yards against Barcelona as the country rounded the world a few million times, but fewer people will have seen him check-spin one of his through balls against Napoli like he was Ronnie O 'Sullivan was. There's a sadness in that: Bellingham's director's version is just as good as the film.
But the beauty of this summer is that it will all be present in vivid detail at the European Championship, when we see the fascinating intersection of his storyline with that of Gareth Southgate.
It is the pressure and Southgate's hard-earned achievement that he travels to Germany with a side considered favorites along with France. For him, for England, 'if not now, then when?' feel it.
I don't buy the idea that this collective is technically better than those who went to the 2004 European Championship or the 2006 World Cup. This is far from an era of great English centre-backs. I also don't think Southgate will have failed if his tenure ends without a trophy. In fact, that idea seems a bit ridiculous and ungrateful.
But he must equally carry the expectations of his own success and the responsibility that comes with having the best range of attacking options in the league – will any other team in Germany possess an axis of terror in quite the same mold as Harry Kane and Bellingham?
How many other countries can rely on Bellingham's positional agility to shape different types of play situations, whether from the kill zone of No 10 or marauding from deeper areas alongside Declan Rice?
The Madrid forward could play a big role in England's European Championship season next year
How many other English managers have a world-class player like Bellingham, who can accept possession in the middle when a match starts to heat up and the stakes are highest?
Through the lens of Bellingham's progress over the past year, through the number of little riddles he solves, it becomes increasingly possible to think that this could, and perhaps should be, the summer that defines Southgate. It could even define a twenty-year-old boy, if that didn't risk underestimating his trajectory.
Of course, this could all be one of those wild sources of optimism. Indeed, it may be necessary to repeat what Owen said recently, that Bellingham needs to string together five or six campaigns before he can be judged alongside the likes of Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes. That lifespan counts.
But then again, what's the fun in that when you're looking forward to a new year? For now, it doesn't seem too outlandish to suggest that 2024 will belong to Bellingham and the late fortune tellers of Birmingham City.
A few more New Year's wishes
If we want to stick to the theme of wishful thinking for 2024, here are a few more wishes with a British twist for the world of sports…
Football: VAR and the Super League can be thrown into the trash bin. This also applies to the legal glaciers that make us question whether Manchester City are a force to be celebrated, or a force bought outside the rules.
Golf: Rory McIlroy to win a fifth major and for his sport's feuding factions to come together on a unified tour. The fans who want to see the best players play their best are being let down.
Tennis: Emma Raducanu remains injury-free and stops firing coaches. Andy Murray must ignore every voice in his head telling him this is the end.
Rugby Union: Whatever efforts have been made in the field of brain injury, quadruple them.
VAR has continued to cause controversy in the Premier League all season
It would be great to see Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy win a fifth major in 2024
Boxing: Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk, a functioning approach to doping and responsibility surrounding Daniel Kinahan's involvement in the sport.
Cricket: Less can be more. If the matches go long, England could play 85 of the next 366 days in Tests alone. Novelty should mean something in international sport.
FORMULA ONE: A competitive season between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Athletics: Keely Hodgkinson and Katarina Johnson-Thompson win gold at the Paris Olympics.
Finally, Happy New Year to all readers.
