Jude Bellingham scored twice against Norway last night, England are in a World Cup semi-final, and he's on six tournament goals. Hold that number, because the Daily Mail is very much hoping you don't remember anything it printed before June. * Rewind to autumn. The Mail's chief football writer on Bellingham: a "divisive soloist." A "poster boy for moodiness." A "brand ambassador for petulance." An "angry young man" with an "intimidatory ego," suffering from "leading-man syndrome having a belittling impact on those he sees as extras." And the kicker: "If I were picking the squad tomorrow, I would remove that risk by removing Bellingham." * That's not a football take, that's a psychiatric file. The paper didn't rate a midfielder — it diagnosed a personality disorder and prescribed unemployment. * Fast-forward to this World Cup. Same paper. Same byline. Bellingham now has "main character energy that was the difference." He's shown "brilliance at No. 8." He's "world-class," "England's man for the big occasion," "man of the match." * Put the two charts side by side. "Leading-man syndrome" was the illness. "Main character energy" is the compliment. It is the same observation about the same footballer — the only variable that changed is the scoreboard. * No correction ran. No "we got him wrong." Media watchers have spent two weeks pointing at the U-turn and waiting for an apology; the answer so far has been more adoration, in bigger type. Tabloid physics: the character assassination is written in pencil, the canonization in 96-point type, and nobody is liable for either. * England play a semi-final this week, so the sainthood continues — right up until the next photo of him frowning. Just file this away for the next time a back page confidently tells you who a 23-year-old is as a human being: they'll retype it the second he scores.