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'You can't talk to people like that' - Jude Bellingham 'overstepped the mark' at times during Birmingham City spell, former coach recalls

Mike Dodds, the former Birmingham City coach who managed a young Jude Bellingham, opened up on the teenagers' time with the club.

Jude Bellingham's conduct at Birmingham
Instances of overstepping boundaries discussed
Insights from a former coach

WHAT HAPPENED? Dodds, former Birmingham City youth coach, opened up about his experience in handling Bellingham during his time at St. Andrew's academy and explained the factors that made him the star that he is today.

WHAT THEY SAID: "Whereas kind of eight or seven years ago that was seen as, 'Ooo you've got to make sure he's humble, you've got to make sure he slows himself down, you can't talk to people like that.' It's like, 'Well he can, because he's got to be able to survive in the first-team dressing room' and listen there were times when he overstepped the mark," Dodds told Talksport.

"Of course there was, he was a young boy but what that did do, when we fostered and kind of enhanced that quality that he had, it allowed him at 16 to go in the dressing room and survive and then obviously take that on," he added.

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THE BIGGER PICTURE: Bellingham moved to Real Madrid from Dortmund in the summer and has become an indispensable part of Carlo Ancelotti's side. The English midfielder is currently their top goalscorer with five goals in four games and has found the back of the net in all league games so far.

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