The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
That seemed to be the message that former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan wanted to get across when talking about Jude Bellingham and the seemingly never-ending battle over his future. Speaking to Talksport, the always controversial talked about the 16-year-old’s future and that he should be wary about his next choice of club:
“A young player of 16 years old, I know he’s prodigious talent and I know people are talking about him in the same way they talked about Wayne Rooney. But I had a kid at Crystal Palace who was talked about in this fashion called John Bostock, who made a move to a supposedly bigger club at that time in Tottenham, against the advice of most of the sensible people around him. He didn’t play for Harry [Redknapp], his career has gone to the left field and he’s now coming back into English football with Nottingham Forest 10 or 12 years after the event.”
To some extent, Jordan has a pretty good point, there are plenty of examples of players that were hyped up to be big things that ended up fading away into nothing, and as much as we might want him to do well, with some fans comparing him to Steven Gerrard, it’s still not a guarantee that he goes on to become a success.
But the question is, should we really be concerned with his development once he leaves the club, which judging by the amount of speculation about his future in the press seems to be edging towards an inevitability at this point.
I suppose we should only care about what club he goes to if we think that he’s going to develop as a player for if and when he comes back to us in the future if things don’t totally work out, think Wilfried Zaha and his move back to Crystal Palace after his stint at Old Trafford.
But other than that, and perhaps the fee that’s going to be involved, should we really be concerned about his future and which club he ends up at?