Ian Hunt

I believe the reaction to the whole England journalism stuff reflects a wider societal challenge we have, which is getting things in the middle. As human beings, we tend to overcorrect our mistakes. I think we're all acutely aware of the horrible treatment different players, managers and teams have got in the past, which was engineered by the press and they deserved a lot of criticism for that. But what that means is we're now hyper-sensitive to the media asking what I perceive to be valid, and fairly standard, questions. With that hyper-sensitivity, we're almost doing a disservice to the likes of Tuchel and Bellingham, and their agency as grown men who have chosen to represent our nation, to answer difficult questions as part of that agreement. Yes, you want the media to be on the side of the team, which I do think broadly they are, but it's also their job to be inquisitive, clear things up and attempt to find out what's really going on. Gabriel Clarke was within his rights to ask the tough questions. Thomas Tuchel handled them absolutely brilliantly. Jude Bellingham showed he's got an elite edge, and is not afraid to push back and challenge people in a healthy way. All three came out of it well for me: mountain out of a molehill.