There are moments in football where a player basically writes a manager a very polite but very pointed letter, and Bukayo Saka just sent Thomas Tuchel an absolute essay. The Arsenal winger's hat-trick against France in the World Cup was the kind of performance that makes you rewind it just to check you actually saw what you think you saw. Three goals, against France, at a World Cup. That is not a fluke. That is a player telling the world exactly what he is worth.
Which makes Tuchel's decision to leave Saka out of the semi-final look increasingly difficult to defend. Now, managers make tough calls all the time and sometimes they come off. Tuchel is no mug either, the man has won a Champions League, so it would be daft to completely write off his thinking. But when the player you dropped then goes and dismantles one of the best teams in the tournament, the burden of proof shifts pretty heavily back onto the manager.
The honest take here is that Saka has been one of England's most consistent performers for a while now. He does not hide, he takes the ball under pressure, and he produces in big games rather than just against the smaller nations. That last bit matters more than people give it credit for. Plenty of players look brilliant against the easier opponents and then go quiet when it actually counts. Saka tends to do the opposite, which is a rare and genuinely valuable quality.
Tuchel will have his reasons and he may never fully share them publicly, which is his right. But the conversation around Saka's place in this England squad has completely changed after that France performance. It would take a very brave or very stubborn manager to leave him out again after what the country just witnessed. Whether Tuchel sees it that way is the interesting question, and England fans will be watching his next selection very closely indeed.
Let me know your thoughts.