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Thank you. Welcome to the Big Thing on Total Soccer Show, the weekly episode where we sink our teeth into one of the meatiest topics in the beautiful game.

Today we're talking about our Lord and Savior Jude Bellingham, or as he will be known in a few years, Sir Jude Bellingham.

Born in the West Midlands, not far from where Daryl Grove was born and raised,

Bellingham joined Birmingham City as a seven-year-old, and it was clear he was special early on.

He was so special, in fact, that Birmingham retired his shirt when he left the club in the summer of 2020 at the age of 17.

He moved to Dortmund, with Birmingham having reportedly turned down a big offer from Manchester United, bullet dodged, and ripped it up in the Bundesliga before moving to Real Madrid the past summer for a fee that could rise to 133 million euros with add-ons.

And with his game-saving performances so far with 13 goals from his first 13 games at the time of recording,

Jude is making sure Dortmund and Birmingham get those sweet, sweet add-ons.

So, how good is Bellingham right now?

Why is he in such great form?

And how long can it last?

That is what we're exploring today on The Big Thing.

My name's Ryan Bailey,

joining me today on that exploration, Taylor Rockwell. Hello, Taylor. Hello, my friend. I'm excited for this one. It's going to be an interesting one because I think we've only done player-centric episodes on like maybe Lionel Messi and where he would move next. I don't know if we've gone in depth on one player to this degree in this way on this show. So I'm excited to do so now.

But as we established on listening to questions yesterday, Taylor, same tier, same tier of player. Yes, of course. Yes. If not better, if not better. Joe had him, I think, best of all time. I could be wrong. Indeed, here to concur with that statement, Joe. Hello, Joe Lowry. Instead of doing anything related to that statement, I'm just going to say, Taylor, I think it's maybe a mistake that we let Ryan do the intro on an episode about an English player. I thought that was going to go on by itself for 45 minutes, and Ryan was just going to finish this out with the monologue. And I just, I had some concerns. I'll put it that way. I had some concerns. Ryan and I both enjoy Comedy Bang Bang, where occasionally the host won't introduce a guest until like 40 minutes into the episode. And it would have been hilarious if Ryan had done a full 45 minutes on Jude Bellingham and then introduced us and then ended the episode. Opportunity Missed, I'm going to say, Ryan. Yeah, my favorite of the comedy bang bang universe episodes are the ones where they do album reviews, so they're doing Bruce Springsteen albums at the moment. And Joe, they'll do a two-hour episode, and they won't start talking about the album until an hour of 15 into the episode. That is my worst nightmare on a podcast. Oh, my word. Not a chance am I ever going to be listening to that episode.

There we go. Hint taken. Let's get to the meat of the action, shall we? Joe, I'll let you kick off.

Just give us a little set the table for us. How good is Jude Bellingham right now?

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