What Gareth Southgate and Engand can count on from Leeds United's 'Terminator' Patrick Bamford

The arguments over where exactly he should be placed in the pecking order of English strikers are as tiresome as all the player versus player debates fuelled by club bias.

What cannot be debated is that after the season Bamford enjoyed in the top flight with Leeds, he as much as Phillips deserves to be part of the conversation.

Phillips getting the call from Gareth Southgate when he did was truly impressive, given the complete absence of Premier League experience on his CV and a lifetime lived outside the England set-up.

Bamford, at least, had spent years on the radar of national decision makers as a youth international and had the privilege of working under none other than Southgate in his England Under 21 days.

Yet this time last year, ahead of the September international break, Phillips was the one at Leeds being tipped for a phone call, not Bamford.

The pair both had doubters outside of Leeds, but Phillips was backed by a unanimous feeling among his own club's fans that his future included international honours. Southgate had been spotted at Elland Road during the Championship title-winning campaign and had spoken about the boy from Wortley Juniors. The ease with which he dominated second-tier games gave it an inevitable feel.

Bamford, however, had doubters close to home too. For all his undoubted qualities, like his defensive nous, pressing ability and link-up play honed under Marcelo Bielsa, there were questions over his finishing, thanks to the number of big chances he missed in the Championship. There was also sneaking suspicion that new £27m signing Rodrigo had been brought in to provide competition that would prove too stiff.

In the Premier League, with its world class defenders, there were certainly no guarantees that Bamford could cut it in a way he had never previously managed.

By the season's midway point, the talk was not of Bamford being dropped from the Leeds team, it was of him being named in the England team.

It wasn't even a case of Bielsa keeping faith with the striker until he found his feet - Bamford's adaptation was instantaneous, his finishing deadly and his goalscoring record remarkable.

The goals were not a deal-breaker for Bielsa, they never have been since he arrived at Elland Road because he requires so many other things of his lone frontman and Bamford delivers on every front. The goals were his ticket to Southgate's thinking, however.

A tally of 17 in 38 top flight games was only bettered by one Englishman - Harry Kane. Factor in seven assists, a durability that allowed him to remain ever-present all season long and his overall contribution to Leeds' play and even his critics arrived at a place where Bamford was impossible to ignore.

It wasn't enough for the Euro 2020 spot the 27-year-old allowed himself to dream about, but it put him in the conversation.

With Marcus Rashford returning from shoulder surgery and Southgate agreeing with Manchester United that Mason Greenwood is best served by more time with his club, Bamford's England suitability is now much more than theoretical. He's not just in the conversation, he's in the room.

And regardless of the competition and how stiff it is at that level, no matter the pedigree of Southgate's other options, Bamford will back himself.

Whether by nature or by nurture, he seems blessed with an unshakable self belief. Missed chances, goal droughts and public doubts failed to remove the resolve he has that he will tuck the next one away. Bamford is one of those at Leeds known to take a holistic approach to the game, working on the psychology as well as the technical and physical aspects. He has surrounded himself with a support network who help him put everything in place to make the right decisions for his career and keep him moving forward, on and off the pitch.

That network must have had to prove their worth and provide at least some comfort when he was guilty of squandering some sitters in the Championship but it could never be said that he wasn't right where he should be the next time, fronting up and putting himself in position to shoot home or be shot down. He was almost metronomical in his ability to repeatedly, consistently appear in both the build up and finale of Leeds attacks. When the goals weren't going in, game after game in that 10-match 2019/20 barren run, or the 13-match drought punctuated only by a brace against Millwall, he just kept going, taking hits and moving forward, refusing to let his self belief be killed, Terminator-esque.

Even with this call up, World Cup involvement next year is a long shot. To get there he has to take this chance and do so in style. Being in the room is one thing, staying there is quite another. To position himself high enough in the pecking order to stay in Southgate's plans until November 2022 he can scarcely put a foot wrong, for club or country.

Goals or even match minutes next month might not be guaranteed - Andorra at home looks like the one where he might be fancied to feature - but elite movement, quality link-up play and tireless effort is guaranteed, in training or if he does get on the pitch. The doubters will keep talking, but this opportunity is every bit as deserved as Phillips' was. Southgate can count on Bamford to shut out the noise and back himself to take it.