Press reaction to Jude Bellingham's move to Real Madrid

Let's start with the first day of the transfer window. Huge news of Jude Bellingham completing his move to Real Madrid. It feels very exciting for Bellingham. Sam, how exciting for football is it generally, particularly English football? It shows that English football is producing some of the best young talent in the world. Real Madrid is a very acquisitive club. In the past, if not in recent years, they've signed the best players in the world. They've rarely signed them as young as this though. They have in recent years switched a little bit to more developmental talent. I'm not really sure what category Bellingham falls into. He's only 19, but he already feels like a very well-established player. He's had a great season in the Bundesliga and a fantastic World Cup. Although there's much more to come for him, I think he's already ready to go into that first team. How exciting is Japan for Jude Bellingham? How much pressure, though, in a sense, upon his young shoulders? He turns 20 this month. Welcome, Bellingham. Second most expensive teenager of all time behind Mbappe in the telegraph here. Bellingham, the real deal. The Metro has Jude as a real superstar. How do you sense this? Do you also sense that perhaps he's the type of young man who will take in this stride after what we've seen in Germany? Yes, exactly that, Teddy. I think he is a confident young man who keeps his head down, gets on with it, and everybody wants a piece of Jude Bellingham. I quite like the switch this time around to see a youngster go away for this stage of his career, and then quite likely you're going to see him in the Premier League when he's coming into his prime. God knows when that will happen, if it's not already happened. I think it's a really incredible move. The Real Madrid fans are over the moon with it. I think he deserves this opportunity. He's just a real smart guy. I hate for that to sound patronising because he's so young. It's sickening that he's not even 20 yet and he's achieved so much. But I think it's that confident maturity around him that I think he's really changed. Players like that, making that change to go there first, and then I think we'll see him in the Premier League when he's 23. You're only here now. He's so much experience and just such a bright young man. I love this move for him. I think it's great. I dare say we don't want to heap too much expectancy on him, Sam. In fact, we sense the crowd at the Bernabeu will do that plenty without us. But the Sun headline here, interesting, Golden Bells, which is clearly a reference, I suppose, to David Beckham in a sense, former Real Madrid player as well. But in terms of English legends, where do you think Bellingham could end up? Is he the most exciting talent since Rooney, Gascoigne? How do you see it? He's definitely up there. There's no doubt he started at a very, very young age and often the challenge is to be able to continue at that level into your 30s. I mean, Rooney managed it. I mean, you made that comparison with Beckham. Beckham really came into the United team, well, it was the 96 season, wasn't it? 96, 97. So he was 21, 22. I mean, Jude Bellingham was already a Real Madrid player. Beckham didn't go to Real Madrid until 2003. When he was in, he would have been about 26, 27 by then. So he really is on fast forward. He's clearly mapped out his career. As Siobhan said, he's left. He's never played in the Premier League, but he's left English football to do it. And the Dortmund move was a great success. So he's obviously backing himself again. I mean, Real Madrid, as you rightly said, there's no hiding place. It's a club where the fans and the media in Madrid put real scrutiny on players. That's fine. When you back yourself, when you've got that ability, there's no reason that he can't do it. And as has been mentioned again, the six-year contract really only takes him into his mid-20s. So there's a lot of... There's room for another move there as well. And who knows? He may be at Real Madrid for 10 years, but he's got that option. That's what happens when you develop as quickly at such a young age as he has. But you can... It's the same with Haaland, really. You kind of think they've got one more big move in at the very least. Sam, you're in Malta. Just a quick thought. Do you think this will be a move that Gareth Southgate welcomes, that this will be a positive for his squad, his team that he builds in the next few years? Yeah, and Bellingham has been with the team at St George's Park, rehabilitating those injuries. It's Thursday that he's introduced at the Bernabeu, and that will be a very big day for him and his family. So he'll be ready for that. I think as far as Southgate goes, he's well aware because he's worked at the FA for years in development before he was manager that there are some really fantastic players at his disposal, that the EPPP system that was brought in in the wake of the 2010 World Cup disappointment is working. Bellingham is just another one of those players that's been developed by this system. It's elite, as it says in the title, and it's demanding of young men, and a lot of them don't get all the way. But clearly, it is producing some really fantastic players. And the challenge, as ever, is where's the next one? Because there's been plenty of good England players over the years that have been one or two in the generation, and really, to win trophies, you need five, six, seven. So the system has to be refined and tweaked, and hopefully there are more Duke Bellinghams to come. Yes, absolutely. Let's wish him all the best with that move.