Jude Bellingham’s star continues to soar. He joined Real Madrid for £88.5 million last summer after dominating the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund for a few seasons.
He’s been a massive hit for the Spanish giants in La Liga, scoring five goals and an assist in four league appearances. Anyone who has seen him play for the Los Blancos will recognise the world-class midfielder he is developing into. Teams in the Premier League would be gazing at him and wishing he was on their squad.
Interestingly, in a talkSPORT Drive Show conversation between Darren Bent and Andy Goldstein, Bent was asked if, for Arsenal, he would swap Martin Odegaard with Bellingham. Surprisingly, the ex-Premier League star stated that he would not exchange the Arsenal captain for the 20-year-old, noting that while the Real Madrid midfielder is excellent, he is not what the Gunners require and the Gunners only need what Odegaard has to offer. If he were to choose someone to swap for Bellingham, it would be Kai Havertz.
Bent said: “Bellingham? I love him. I love him. But the question that was put to me in the pre-show planning meeting was, would I swap Odegaard for him?
“And no, I’m not swapping our captain, one of our influential players. Right at this particular moment, I’d keep Odegaard. Thank you.”
Stunned, Andy Goldstein replied to Bent’s claim: “Hold on, you own Arsenal, phone goes, ‘Hello, it’s Real Madrid here, do you want to swap Bellingham for Odegaard?’ You would say no?”
Bent stuck to his word, replying, “I would say no. I’d keep Odegaard. Our captain, our leader. He’s inspirational.”
He added: “I think Bellingham is probably a better player, but for where Arsenal are at right now, Odegaard being the captain, I’m not swapping him.”
“Yeah, but not in that position,” Bent replied when asked if he would improve the Gunners. “I’d swap Kai Havertz in a heartbeat for him. I’d play [Declan] Rice, Bellingham, and Odegaard.
“There’s your three, but I’m not going to take the captaincy away from Odegaard and say, ‘Off you go. I’m not doing that.”
If you were asked, as Bent was, if Arsenal should swap Jude Bellingham for Odegaard, would you say yes? Is this a transfer move you would support?
They are two different players, in Smith Rowe Arsenal has a player in Bellingham mold, but the gaffer is spinning.
Meanwhile Tierney and Gabriel Magalhaes was immense for their respective countries, this argues well for Arsenal defense, the problem is one is out in the cold while the other just welcome back in the fold?
Yes, I also think Smith-Rowe can play like Bellingham if he gets more chances to play a central role. I bet we’ll see him soon in a cup match
Odegaard is very suitable for Arteta’s current tactics, so I wouldn’t swap him for Bellingham
Well said Gai👍
Two players with different skill set. And for the way Arsenal plays Odegard is more needed. That Belinham is prefered than ESR in England team is a function of “time and chance for Belinham” ESR is of immense potential and the last time he played for the England national team he scored.
I look forward to watch Smith-Rowe play in Xhaka’s position
Yes I sincerely Hope’s he gets involved pretty soon, surely his eyes are on Euro 24 which is just around the corner.
I would have like to see a clear path of the kid to the first team.
No I wouldn’t and the reason why?
Odegaard chose The Arsenal.
Bellingham chose Madrid.
Just watch how Odegaard reacts with the crowd – he’s Arsenal through and through.
I wasn’t sure if he was the man for us, but I’m so pleased I was proved wrong.
So say I
He wouldn’t choose us
Odegaard couldn’t hack it Madrid but Jude has 5 goals in 4 games. I don’t really think the question posed in the article needs asking.
Prolly not a thinker then.
To Dan.
It’s called knowledge mate
Poor article. Surely you can write better this this!
Id say its more pointless or irrelevant than actually “poor”. Were it a even a possibility, which it is NOT, it would have been worthwhile reading and discussing about.
Odegaard is EPL proven, Bellingham isn’t, so I wouldn’t swap. Although I do think Bellingham will become world class.
Bellingham is world class since dortmund mate! I was surprised went for sancho instead of him as Ive always said Bellingham is the guy and sancho is extremely overrated
One thing I’ve found out is that football is not all about individual performance but much more about team chemistry . Like Havertz, Bellingham can come into this Arsenal team and take some time to gel with the team as well. My take is that Arsenal needs to look inward rather looking for what’s not lost. One thing we need to realize is that we have mistakenly found out that Viera is better in the left 8 position than the right 8. It’s not that he has improved, it’s us that just realized he is better played on the left side of the advanced midfield position. With that position sorted, I believe it’s time to start playing ESR in the right 8 position. I’ll play a midfield of Jorginho , ESR and Viera against Everton and allow those who’ve played for their countries to rest against our upcoming inaugural Champions League Game. Given the right opportunity, ESR might not be far from Bellingham if he’s given a run in the team, however, I suspect he might also be better in the left 8 than the right 8 ( not sure), which might then call for a shifting of Kai to the right, as Odegaard cover. You never know that might be where he will click.
i dont get WHY some folk so love discussing HYPOTHETICAL situations that will for certain never happen. Not for me, fortunately!
It’s called a debate Jon. I’m sure you practised your sophistry at publc school young man….
“Sophistry” means a false argument and lying. As you well know PAT .
So no, I find false arguments and esp false HEADLINES, to be far more in your locker than ever in mine I actively challenge sophistry on your own site when used by so many others.
Some however , to be fair to their lack of proper English, dont even realise what they say are falsehoods.
And finally, slightly younger than me man, I have never indulged in hypothetical debate for thesimple reason that it is of no interest to me. And achieves little but letting off pointless steam.
Yer my friend, you wrote a hypothetical, but interesting, article about time wasting recently – unless of course, you think FIFA will adopt your thoughts?
Just about to say the same Ken ,although it definitely wasn’t interesting to me anyway .
Not so ,once again!
I was giving positive suggestions for improving the increasing curse of time wasting that so infects our game In that piece. I also asked for other suggestions from Gooners.
Indeed YOU personally replied in some detail. Nothing at all “hypothetical about that at all, as you well know but will not admit!
So how you can now laughably wrongly claim it was hypothetical, esp from a man,you,whose first language IS English, is deeply worrying.
Jon, I answered your points, as it was YOU who asked for fans to give their views… nothing wrong with that of course.
Your suggestions were an assumption that they might help to save time wasting, but, as they were just that, they were a hypothesis – an assumption used in an argument or supposition… but not factual.
It didn’t matter if the suggestions were either positive or negative of course, but I’m sure you knew that.
Oh KEN! So you are now trying to take me on in semantics! Where are your qualifications? I KNOW WHAT MINE ARE, OLD SON!.
Well, how about this – suppose I say, as I have a life outside JA to lead- if you wish to tell me my article was no more than a hypothetical one, then go ahead, as personal point scoring plainly gives far more satisfaction to you than it ever could to me. HAPPY NOW?
Me again KEN. One last final thought from me on what constitutes hypothesis. The Bellingham or Odegaard swap raticle is something that definitely will not happen So THAT is mere pointless and hypothetical discussion.
On the othe hand, my article gave positive suggestions and I asked for others suggestions on what, sooner or later is bound to happen, at least in some small part. So THAT is NOT hypothesis. QED!
Just a minor lesson for you on true meaning of words
Bellingham would fit into Arsenal very nicely. A top performer and looks destined to be a proper super star. Odergaard has been very good for the most part but i would swap 100%.
I would offer a better swap. Haverz and Bellingham and keep Odergaard.
Big Noooooooooo
Odegaard is far ahead of Bellingham but not in the English rank of hundred millions.
Darren Bent and I are totally in sync. I would never swop Odergaard for Bellingham. The latter is a little too intense for me, does way too much beyond just playing soccer. He’s a classic red card candidate and gives an impression he just may be a bit of a narcissist. He’s a huge attention seeker: a big NO for me.
Odergaard is brilliant, subtly aggressive and extremely focused. Odergaard and Erickson are class; Bellingham and Progba are too distracted.
This is the result of the International break. No decent football news so hypothetical articles like this one are written. Does anybody really care what Darren Bent thinks? Bellingham had a choice of virtually any top club in Europe, he chose Real and I believe that is where he will stay. I would guess he’s certainly being paid more!!!
Odegaard comes across as a quiet self effacing guy,
but he is the engine that makes our team tick.
Bellingham, at least to me, comes across as an egotist and wants to be the star.
For me, it would Odegaard every time!!
Oh man, Kai Havertz is catching strays left, right and centre! I hope it doesn’t affect his confidence, I really want this transfer to work out.. too much money has been spent on the lad. Another Pepè scenario and Kroenke might not want to sanction any more big transfers.
I would, and the only reason why I would is because I believe Bellingham has a higher ceiling than Ode
Higher ceiling than odegaard?? Whatever makes you think you’ve seen the best of our captain.
You really do struggle to understand, often.
I never said Ode has reached his peak of we’ve seen the best of him yet did I?
What I said is Jude, IMO, has a higher ceiling….that doesn’t mean anything bad with regards to Ode.
If we made that swap, I think we’d have to buy someone else to replace odegaard – Bellingham is great, but he’s a different type of midfielder. Odegaard is like a classic no10 who’s adapted his game to the current model of pressing and generally operating more as a team. Bellingham has less of that “cuteness” as sounness calls it, but is more of a classic box-to-box all rounder – he does more things (more destructive, gets into the box more often and will probably score more over the course of his career), but won’t be so adept at changing direction quickly or picking the clever passes. The two of them together in our midfield would be a dream but I think we’d lose a lot by replacing odegaard with Bellingham.
Exactly! He can’t even score from yards out or free kicks.jude is more of a box to box kinda midfielder who will struggle in odegaard’s role.
Jude is more of our old Ramsey, box to box but more energetic and cover more spaces may because he is still young.
His style of play will be prone to injury in premier league and it might be too serious as time goes by( just like Ramsey) because they both get involve in tackles and box.
So I will pick Odegaard ahead of him even through they are playing in different position.
Jude performs very well for Realmadrid and Odegaard has been very great for us. Hence, they are both untouchable…