It is a hard job keeping Jude Bellingham quiet. Just ask Gareth Southgate, who picked him for Euro 2020 as a 17-year-old primarily for early tournament experience. “His mentality is ‘no, no, no’. He wants to start, he wants to take corners, he wants to captain the team, whatever it is,” recalled Southgate.

Bellingham has never been afraid to speak his mind to England coaches and on the pitch it is the same with the match officials. Now 21, others at his age are blending in with the background while older team-mates do the talking. Bellingham takes that on himself as a player who craves centre-stage. To borrow his own phrase: “Who else?”

This all bodes well for England in the future when a new captain is needed after Harry Kane hands over the armband. Bellingham will be a strong candidate and showed enough attributes to be included in Southgate’s “leadership group” at the last European Championship.

Getting sent off for foul and abusive language against Osasuna last weekend was not one for the curriculum vitae of a future England captain. Bellingham could face a potential 12-game ban if it is determined he was being insulting towards the referee, rather than expressing frustration, as he has argued.

Yet it showed what precocity Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti have on their hands. Not since Wayne Rooney started his England career, 22 years ago, have England had a player like this.

It must be said that Bellingham was extremely unfortunate to see red last weekend, regardless of whether he said “f--- off” or “f--- you” to José Luis Munuera Montero. The decision reflected more on the Spanish referee than it did on Bellingham. Most would be amazed if Montero went the remaining 51 minutes of the match without hearing naughty words flying in his direction.

“Are we saying you can’t swear? In this game that is emotional and pressure and high octane, if I swear at a referee he gives it back,” said ESPN pundit Craig Burley, one of the only reasonable analysts on the subject.

“Insulting his family crosses the line but if you are upset at a decision and use profanity – the maximum [punishment] is a yellow. Everyone wakes up and thinks about how they can be offended today. Do we want 11 dummies on the pitch?”

It is known for some Premier League referees to give as good as they get when players swear. Kasper Schmeichel once told how Mark Clattenburg’s attitude was: “No bull----, he’d tell you to f--- off if you were being a d---.” Mark Halsey tells a story about telling a player to “f--- off” as a riposte. “He’s turned around, completely confused and gone ‘OK Mark, no problem, sorry’,” Halsey said.

Real leader could become scapegoat

It seemed like La Liga was trying to make refereeing statements over the last weekend, with six red cards in total and three of them – Yangel Herrera (Girona), Pablo Barrios (Atlético Madrid), Sheraldo Becker (Real Sociedad) – from VAR “upgrades”. It appears that Bellingham has been the collateral damage for a clampdown on backchat at referees. It could be argued he is an easy target – he is one of the talkers, one of the leaders, and every team needs them.

The only way Montero’s decision can be justified is if others are dismissed for similar tiny infractions in the coming weeks. Otherwise Bellingham is a scapegoat.

“I’m an English player... and when I speak on the pitch it’s normal that I use expressions that come naturally to me in English,” he said after the incident. “There was no insult, you can see in the video right away, it was an expression to myself, I’m not even directing myself towards the referee. But obviously there was a misunderstanding. He’s believed I’ve said it to him.”

The decision to blow the final whistle when Real were attacking against Valencia last season was another shocker. Bellingham headed a winning “goal” but it had come a couple of seconds after the whistle had blown – a rare occasion of a referee blowing up with a team on the attack. “It’s a f------ goal,” were the words that saw Bellingham punished with a red card.

Taking the bravado and showmanship out of Bellingham would reduce him as a player. A passive young player would not have broken into Birmingham City or Borussia Dortmund’s first team, let alone command a place for Real Madrid.

It is clear now that Bellingham is being targeted by opponents for rough treatment or trying to provoke him into a red-card offence. That was clear a year ago when he was booked during England’s friendly with Brazil. Bellingham received late kicks himself that evening, then after a tackle on Bruno Guimaraes, the Newcastle midfielder made the most of his reaction to maximise the chances of red.

There could be an answer in a change of tack with referees. One school of thought is that protests can influence the next decision. But others kill the referee with kindness. John Fashanu was a master of that – asking how the family are before a game and keeping dialogue friendly. Gary Lineker got a dressing down from his father for swearing at a referee as a kid, which set up a career of never being booked. Bellingham has to find the way himself to keep his edge and keep on the pitch.