England’s Selection Panic and Ronaldo’s ‘Brutal’ Blast

The international break has delivered its usual cocktail of football, fury and faintly ridiculous headlines. England have won, Cristiano Ronaldo has apparently been “blasted”, and an “unwritten” BBC rule has been broken in front of millions. Or so we’re told.

Strip away the noise and what’s left is a familiar story: hysteria doing far more running than any full-back.

England’s Full‑Back ‘Mess’ That Isn’t

Charlie Wyett, in his column for The Sun, imagines a fantasy fix for England: if Thomas Tuchel could somehow lift Arsenal’s back four of Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori wholesale, England would win the World Cup. Simple as that.

Why stop there? If you’re shopping in north London and beyond, you may as well throw in David Raya. Maybe rotate Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi with Djed Spence as impact subs. Once you’re in dreamland, you don’t need a return ticket.

The serious thrust of Wyett’s piece is England’s defence. He revels in the idea of seeing an England side “play without the handbrake on”, yet can’t let go of the fear that the back line will undo them. The full‑back situation, he declares, is “a mess”, and it “could have been partially corrected” if Tuchel had replaced the injured Tino Livramento with a like‑for‑like option.

Pause there. Livramento is a talented player, but we’re talking about someone who, in all likelihood, would barely have seen the pitch. Swapping one fringe full‑back for another fringe full‑back does not turn a squad into chaos. It tweaks the 25th name on the list.

Instead, Tuchel called up Trevoh Chalobah, a centre‑back. From that, Wyett concludes England “do not have a fully fit, in‑form, natural full‑back.”

That’s a lot of qualifiers in one sentence, all carefully arranged to step neatly around the two full‑backs who actually started in the win over Croatia. You can question Reece James’ long‑term fitness record if you like, but pretending England are wandering around without a single functioning full‑back is fantasy.

Then comes Nico O’Reilly.

Wyett describes him as “a midfielder who is being squeezed in at the back.” In reality, he’s Manchester City’s starting left‑back. Pep Guardiola has looked at his options, looked at O’Reilly, and decided he belongs there. If Guardiola is comfortable with that, England can probably live with it too.

And if we’re going to play the “natural full‑back” game, that dream back four of Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori contains precisely none. Not one old‑fashioned, chalk-on-the-boots full‑back in sight. Yet it’s somehow the magic answer.

Luke Shaw, ‘Ridiculous’ and Then… Not

Wyett also takes aim at Luke Shaw’s omission.

“It was ridiculous that Tuchel did not pick Luke Shaw,” he writes, before immediately conceding that Shaw “has not featured for the Three Lions since the Euro 2024 final” and that “his omission was not a surprise.”

So it’s ridiculous, but also entirely predictable. Which rather undercuts the outrage.

Ronaldo, ‘Blasted’ and the Storm That Wasn’t

The Ronaldo machine never sleeps, and neither do the headlines around him.

On The Sun’s site, Cristiano Ronaldo was supposedly at the centre of a “storm” after “brutal” comments from a Portugal team‑mate. The billing is dramatic: “JUST ANOTHER PLAYER” and “blasted” after a “DR Congo horror show”.

You’d be forgiven for thinking Bruno Fernandes had finally snapped and called him out as selfish, or that some youngster had dared to question his ego in public.

Instead, this is what Joao Neves actually said:

“We know what Cristiano has done for us, for our national team, and for the world of football. But at this moment, he and we know that he is no different. He is just another player here to help. He is no different from the others. He is here to contribute, just like all of us.”

That’s it. Respect for what Ronaldo has achieved. A clear message that inside the current squad, everyone is treated the same. No special rules. No pedestal.

That’s not “brutal”. It’s the kind of line every coach in the world wants to hear from a young midfielder: acknowledgment of a legend, wrapped in a commitment to collective standards.

As for the “storm”, it boils down to a familiar pattern: a few excitable accounts on social media and a headline writer determined to turn a perfectly normal quote into a public flogging.

Cole Palmer, Jet2 and Selective Outrage

On a different front, Cole Palmer has been praised as a “humble star” for flying with Jet2. The framing is glowing, almost reverential.

It sits awkwardly alongside how Raheem Sterling was treated for doing something similar a few years ago. When Sterling boarded an EasyJet flight, he was labelled “penny pinching” and accused of having “slummed it on the budget airline”, despite his wages being spelled out in breathless detail.

Same basic action: a highly paid footballer using a budget airline. Two very different portrayals.

The contrast doesn’t need spelling out. It just hangs there.

Mark Chapman and the ‘Unwritten’ MOTD Rule

Then there’s the great Match of the Day scandal.

“BBC host Mark Chapman makes feelings perfectly clear after World Cup clash as he breaks unwritten MOTD rule,” roars another Sun headline.

What rule? You might imagine something serious: a ban on swearing, a directive on impartiality, a line in the sand about not undermining referees.

No. After Czechia’s draw with South Africa, Chapman closed the broadcast with: “Sometimes a game does not deserve a really clever closing link. Goodbye.”

That’s it. That was the crime.

We’re told “it is an unwritten rule in the BBC that there is always a clever link at the end of match coverage.” An “unwritten rule” that appears to boil down to: try to be good at your job.

Chapman’s line was, in fact, a neat little gag. He acknowledged a drab game, undercut the expectation of a polished sign‑off, and wrapped it all in one sentence. If anything, it was exactly the kind of wry, self‑aware link you’d expect from a seasoned broadcaster.

Emma Hayes and the ‘Tiny Blackboard’

Emma Hayes, as ever, finds herself at the centre of another mini‑storm.

According to The Sun, she was “forced” to do her tactical analysis on “a tiny blackboard on a set that looked like a little kitchen”, which “sparked outrage online.”

“Forced” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. So is “outrage”.

The “tiny blackboard” line is particularly telling, as if the size of the prop somehow diminishes the quality of the analysis. It conjures an image of a world‑class coach reduced to scribbling in the corner, when in reality it’s just another TV set‑up, another stylistic choice by a production team.

It’s hardly Michael Scott’s prized plasma TV, but it’s not exactly a humanitarian issue either.

The football itself will move on quickly. England will pick another squad. Ronaldo will score or he won’t. Hayes will dissect another game on whatever set she’s given.

The noise around them, though? That shows no sign of calming down.