Another part of football's soul retires with Jude Bellingham's shirt number - The Warm-Up

The Warm-Up had a largely unremarkable primary school football career. A solitary season at left-back generated cherished memories such as a comical own goal, being instructed to never take a step past the halfway line and suffering utter humiliation when Manland played a Brazilian kid at right wing and he scored four goals in a 9-0 loss.

But this morning, we might have to get Mr Jones on the phone and ask why the famous Roundwood JMI No. 3 shirt wasn’t retired. Admittedly, The Warm-Up did not leave Primary School to join Borussia Dortmund, nor was it anywhere near as outrageously talented or beloved by thousands as Jude Bellingham is. But the news that Birmingham City have retired his No. 22 shirt following his transfer to Germany has left us thinking that anything is possible.

Just for clarity on this, Bellingham is 17 (seventeen), made 44 (forty-four) appearances for Birmingham and spent one (one) whole season in the No. 22 shirt. There is no question this is one of the most bizarre things a football club has ever done - including signing Bebe.

Bellingham may well prove to be one of the great English midfielders of the modern era. Maybe he will inspire Borussia Dortmund to Bundesliga titles and the Champions League. The Warm-Up really hopes he does. But retiring his shirt just leaves you utterly bemused about the state of football.

Birmingham showed their workings via a statement on the club’s official website: “In such a remarkably short space of time Jude has become an iconic figure at Blues, showing what can be achieved through talent, hard work and dedication. His caring, humble and engaging off-the-field demeanour has also made him such an impressive role model.

Diego Maradona, Paolo Maldini, Johan Cruyff, Michael Jordan, Jude Bellingham. It’s an illustrious list and being generous, maybe Birmingham are just way, way, way, way ahead of the curve on this one.

There was a time in the late noughties when every single time a transfer window opened, Manchester United were strongly and repeatedly linked with a move for Wesley Sneijder. The mantle was then passed to Nico Gaitan, who no one had ever really seen play but were still utterly convinced that this was the window when the Argentine would be moving to Old Trafford.

Now United’s white whale, a target verging on the obsessive but never caught, is not a player, or even a particular person, but a position. How The Warm-Up had to suppress a smile upon reading this morning that, yes, this would be the year when Manchester United appointed a director of football!

The story comes courtesy of The Telegraph, who report that:

"Ed Woodward will look to appoint a director of football at Manchester United after putting the role back on his agenda. United’s executive vice-chairman first looked at the position two years ago and has returned to the idea of a wide-ranging post to sit alongside the existing structure at Old Trafford, working in various departments such as recruitment, the AON training ground and women’s football.

"Atletico Madrid’s Andrea Berta is among the sporting directors who may be tempted by working for one of the world’s biggest clubs. Others who are highly rated include Juventus’ Fabio Paratici and Antero Henrique, who left Paris Saint-Germain a year ago. Woodward has outlined the criteria for a first director of football in the club’s history but is yet to start the process of shortlisting the right candidates, with his priority the completion of the 2019/20 season and dealing with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic."

Given that United have needed a director of football for longer than America has needed a new president, forgive The Warm-Up if it’s mildly sceptical about this new development.

After all, it’s as long ago as May of this year that The Athletic reported that the club were no longer interested in appointing someone to the role. Time is rather an elastic concept at the moment but that was only two months ago.

Furthermore, with the Telegraph reporting that Woodward hasn’t shortlisted any candidates and instead wants to focus on dealing with the impact of the pandemic, which could be around for a while, this is one straight out of the Sneijder playbook. Trust The Warm-Up on this: this one will go on for years.

Juventus missed a chance to wrap up their ninth consecutive title last night as they let slip a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 away at Udinese. The Warm-Up didn’t catch the match – there is a limit to how much football can be watched when it’s on every night – but Maurizio Sarri had some interesting quotes around how the pandemic has affected football, even though it does continue.

"This season is difficult, all the teams are playing in conditions different to the usual ones and everyone is tired,” he said. "It's complicated to stay mentally and physically on the ball for 90 minutes. The games are strange and the momentum changes very easily. The mental fatigue is more than the physical fatigue."

The Footballer of the Year will be crowned today, with suggestions being that Kevin de Bruyne might have prevailed through a sea of Liverpool contenders.

Until the news comes out, let’s pay due deference to the only man to have won it three times, and in the space of four seasons too…

While he was picking up silverware, they were… etc etc

Who said French football was cancelled? Tonight it’s the Coupe de France final as PSG face St Etienne in what will be a very useful warm-up for the Champions League…

Oh and you may have heard it’s the final day of the season on Sunday. We will have live text commentary on seven of the 10 matches across the Premier League at 4pm.