Of course, Alexander-Arnold’s England omission is *actually* Jude Bellingham’s fault

The few days following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s omission from the England squad has led to widespread suggestions that there’s something fishy going on. It’s probably Jude Bellingham’s fault.

Alexander-Arnold has made just one 26-minute appearance under Tuchel, against Andorra in June, and hasn’t been selected in any of the previous three squads due to a combination of injury and poor form. He’s now been left out for the upcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan in what would have been his last opportunity to impress for the Three Lions ahead of the World Cup.

Tino Livramento, Djed Spence and Jarell Quansah were initially selected ahead of the Real Madrid man, before Ben White was called up to replace the injured Quansah after a three-year absence from England and just seven Premier League appearances for Arsenal this season.

‘Madrid. Y nada mas’, Alexander-Arnold posted in an understandably frustrated response to that kick in the teeth, which translates to ‘Madrid. And nothing else’.

“Fair enough,” Tuchel responded before giving a pretty convincing reason as to why he omitted such a “talented” full-back based around his desire to field players with a high “intensity”. Alexander-Arnold is a lot of very good things, but dynamism and energy aren’t his strengths.

But no, no, no, “there’s something going on” according to Roy Keane and Wayne Rooney is convinced there’s a “deeper” reason behind the snub beyond what we already know to be Tuchel’s loyalty to tried and tested players, Alexander-Arnold being pretty terrible for most of the season and the England boss plainly stating that he wants a “different profile” of player.

Also, let’s not pretend Tuchel is bucking the trend here. Jurgen Klopp loved Alexander-Arnold but neither Gareth Southgate nor Xabi Alonso fancied him and he remains a bit-part player under Alvaro Arbeloa at Real Madrid. He’s a fantastic footballer but evidently a flawed one in the minds of the majority of the manager’s he’s worked under.

“The one big surprise, obviously, was Trent,” Rooney said on his BBC podcast when asked for his take on Tuchel’s squad.

“I find it incredible that he’s not in a 35-man squad. It didn’t sound like there was any way back for Trent in the squad, the way Thomas Tuchel spoke.

“But he should be in that squad. Look at his ability, his quality – I know he’s not the best defender, he’ll probably admit that himself.

“But what he has on the ball is something no other English player has. He’s been playing for Real Madrid recently and playing really well.

“I think sometimes we judge players too quickly and I’ve been guilty of that myself. You don’t know how difficult it was for him to go over there to settle in and he picked up a few injuries as well.

“He’s had a run of games now and there’s no doubting his ability. He’s as good on the ball as any player we’ve seen in the Premier League.

“There’s an argument that he should start for England . So to not have him in the squad, it feels a little bit deeper from Tuchel.”

Rooney went on to say “I don’t know what the reasons are” for Alexander-Arnold’s omission but in a bid to conjure up a conspiratorial cause for the snub, the Manchester United legend managed to pin the blame on the primary England punching bag of the last six months.

He added: “Now I know he’s close with Jude [Bellingham] and it looks like there’s been a few issues with Jude not being in the squad of late.

“So maybe Tuchel feels there’s a clique there and he’s trying to split that up. I don’t know, I don’t know what the reasons are.”

Bellingham was left out of the internationals in September through a shoulder injury before his absence in October caused a great furore despite Tuchel saying his recent return from that injury was a big factor in his decision. There was something amiss then too of course.

But in fantasy world Rooney has plunged us into, he presumably believes Tuchel felt the clique between Alexander-Arnold and Bellingham mainly in his waters as they’ve been named in the same squad just once under his watch.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. Alexander-Arnold needed to be very good to force his way into a Tuchel system and philosophy he’s unsuited to, and he’s been a bit sh*t.