Clutching the sizeable man of the match vase that could hold a bunch of flowers, Marcus Rashford did not think twice when asked who his alternative man of the match was against Wales.
"Jude Bellingham," he smiled. "I was just saying to the lads, for me, he's an unbelievable player. I think in two to three years there's not going to be a debate about who the best midfielder in the world is.
"He can do everything on a football pitch and I think his running ability is just ridiculous, he can outrun anyone he plays against, he gets in the box, can score goals, defend, [he's got] everything."
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In a parallel universe, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is managing United with Bellingham dashing from box-to-box, Jadon Sancho servicing Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish running down the wing like Giggs and bending it like Beckham.
Despite efforts to conceal his identity, Bellingham visited United's Carrington training complex. His policeman father was not as shy and retiring, flashing a full beam smile for photographers brighter than the Range Rover headlights back in March 2020.
Arjen Robben and Aaron Ramsey are the other known footballers who have toured Carrington only to never play for United. Bellingham opted for Borussia Dortmund as he was assured of fulfilling playing time, something United could not guarantee.
Dortmund can hardly trumpet luring players away from United. It has become a backhanded compliment for they are the halfway house, Bundesliga also-rans who polish rough diamonds certain to fetch a pretty penny - unless they have a release clause.
Come the summer, Bellingham will have spent three years in the Ruhr and only won the German Cup. That is Dortmund's ceiling in a league Bayern Munich have monopolised since they started poaching Dortmund's best players a decade ago. Dortmund have not reached the last four of the Champions League since their final appearance at Wembley in 2013. That is still better going than United.
Dortmund would defy the odds to keep Bellingham beyond next summer. They did so when Sancho seemed destined to leave in 2020, although the Covid-19 pandemic was chiefly responsible for United refusing to meet an exorbitant valuation of £108million.
Bellingham is a footballer worthy of a nine-figure fee but under contract until 2025. The longer Dortmund refuse to cash in, the more Bellingham's valuation dwindles.
Any elite club is interested in Bellingham and another England midfielder could be on the market in the summer. "I see my friends here who are playing Champions League and for big trophies," Declan Rice said on Thursday. “You only get one career and at the end you want to look back at what you’ve won and the biggest games you’ve played in.”
West Ham United get an easy ride from a sympathetic English press but even will have to accept that, no, the Champions League anthem is not going to reverberate around the London Stadium. West Ham's best side in decades still finished below United's worst side in decades last season. Now, West Ham are 16th.
Rice is contracted to West Ham until 2024 but the club has a one-year option to delay the inevitable. Rice, 23, was asking Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw about United as far back as March of last year.
He could have his pick of the Premier League lot: a homecoming at Chelsea and reunion with Mason Mount, Liverpool's midfield needs an overhaul, Arsenal's axis of Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka is not foolproof and City would surely be receptive.
United held discussions about recruiting an English midfielder in the summer who ended up at City in Kalvin Phillips. Leeds United's survival and City's intervention ensured Phillips did not follow the same path as Eric Cantona and Alan Smith.
Phillips has played four times for City, not one of them a start and admitted to confidants he was amazed they proceeded with his £45m transfer due to a shoulder injury. Casemiro only cost £60m more.
A few months after United's concrete interest in Phillips was established, Erik ten Hag still raised eyebrows at AAMI Park in Melbourne when he declared a preference for homegrown recruits.
"I would like to sign English players because I think there is only one criteria and that's quality in combination with the price," he explained. "It looks like English players are quite expensive. It's a fact you cannot deny. In the end it's about quality."
United can discount acquiring any elite English players if they have no Champions League football to offer. That scuppered any move for Sancho in 2019, so United moved from an upmarket boutique to a bargain basket to fish out Daniel James. The capless Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire were at mid-table clubs yet still commanded a combined £130m.
Christian Eriksen is 31 on Valentine's Day and looks as fresh as a bunch of roses. Casemiro turns the same age nine days later and Fred celebrates his 30th in March. Scott McTominay is 26 next week but in a league where the back-and-forth is sometimes as fast as a tennis match, United need a more youthful presence to patrol the middle of the park.
It would be remiss of United not to be in the conversation again for at least one of Rice and Bellingham. Ten Hag has imbued the squad with an impassioned Latino presence that has made United a more aggressive team after the idealistic Anglicisation Ole Gunnar Solskjaer favoured.
Bellingham is a generational talent who flutters his eyelashes at Liverpool but he was engaged enough to have a tour of Carrington (the brochure should clarify its canteen and pool areas have since been refurbished) and Rice is becoming more open about his willingness to end his days as an Eastender.
Senior sources at United have noted Rashford's popularity in the England squad and that he can be "influential". His own contract has a maximum expiry date of June 2023 and it has been too long since he got his hands on a trophy in a United shirt.
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