Daily Mail columnist says England are not World Cup winners 'with or without' Jude Bellingham

Craig Hope, writing in the Daily Mail, wrote that England cannot be considered World Cup winners "with or without" Jude Bellingham and said the midfielder's standing and surrounding entourage have become a source of friction within the squad.

Hope pointed to recent matches — including England's 3-1 World Cup defeat by Senegal and a string of uninspiring qualifying wins over Albania, Latvia and Andorra — as evidence that the team’s problems pre-date the arrival of manager Thomas Tuchel and are not solvable by any single player. "Any suggestion that the white knight from Real Madrid will ride to the rescue and all will be OK is like believing air freshener is the solution to a blocked drain," he wrote.

Hope also revisited remarks Tuchel made in June when the manager used the word "repulsive" to describe Bellingham's on-field behaviour. Tuchel later apologised for the comment and said he had hoped to have more credit with the English media after speaking in a second language. The columnist said Tuchel's initial bluntness suggested a readiness to address what he described as an "elephant in the room" — namely, a perceived leading‑man syndrome from Bellingham that could belittle team-mates — but that the issue had not been properly confronted since.

The column noted that Bellingham, who has been sidelined recently while recovering from shoulder surgery, remains the team's outstanding player on the field but that his emergence has coincided with a loosening of the collective unity England enjoyed under Gareth Southgate. Hope cited a recent piece by colleague Oliver Holt that examined the role of Bellingham's father, Mark, and described a "dark side" to the player's entourage that, the columnist wrote, has fuelled mistrust between the camp and outside observers.

Hope wrote that in Bellingham's absence the player has paradoxically become more central to debate over England's prospects, and that the squad's response to high‑pressure away fixtures will say more about Tuchel's project than routine home wins. "This is a chance for those he can 'intimidate' — Tuchel's word — to put their names up in lights," the column said, listing a series of young attackers who might be given opportunities to step up.

Manager and players have framed the immediate run of matches as a test of togetherness. Captain Harry Kane said a hostile away match offers an opportunity to build collective experience. "Sometimes, when you get through these types of games together, especially as a newish team, like we are, that's how you build experiences, that's how you build togetherness," Kane said. "When you do that against these types of opponents in these stadiums, I feel like that builds an extra layer of togetherness that you can't form without playing."

Hope concluded that if England cannot produce a convincing performance without Bellingham, then the broader narrative that the team is overly dependent on one individual will be reinforced. The columnist wrote that Tuchel's larger challenge is not simply to win without Bellingham but to find a way to win a major tournament with him integral to the side.

Tuchel's England face a competitive away fixture at the Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade that Hope described as the first proper test of the manager's tenure and an occasion likely to reveal whether the team can forge the togetherness deemed necessary for success at next summer's finals. The columnist's assessment adds to ongoing debate in England about leadership, dressing-room dynamics and whether a single star can — or should — be viewed as the decisive factor in a World Cup campaign.