Arsenal stars Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale have been called up to the England squad for their Nations League games at the end of this month, but Ben White has been unfairly snubbed.
The Three Lions will face Italy and Germany in what will be their final two games before the World Cup. This will be the last time Southgate gets to have a closer look at his players, and we feel he’s wrong to not pick White.
Ben White gets unfairly snubbed as Southgate announces England squad
White was a part of the England squad that reached the final of the Euros last year. Although he didn’t play a single game in the tournament, he completely deserved to be there, and he has only gotten better since.
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After the Euros, White secured a £50 million transfer to Arsenal (Sky Sports), and he has mostly been brilliant. The Englishman had a fabulous debut campaign at the Emirates in the heart of the defence, and he’s a very integral part of Mikel Arteta’s side.
This season, White has only featured at right-back, but he has still been magnificent. He has barely put a foot wrong and is keeping Takehiro Tomiyasu – who is a phenomenal right-back – out of the starting lineup.
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Southgate has called up 12 defenders in total for England’s upcoming games against Italy and Germany. In our opinion, White deserves a call-up much more than at least half of the names on that list.
Harry Maguire can’t even get into Manchester United’s team at the moment, while Trent Alexander-Arnold has had a woeful start to the campaign – but both players have been called up by Southgate.
White has been a hundred times better than the above-mentioned duo, but he has still been ignored, which is really, really unfair.
The Insider’s View:
There’s not a lot White can do now apart from putting his head down and focusing on Arsenal, but it must be really discouraging for a player to get snubbed even after playing so well.
What makes it even worse is that players who’ve been considerably worse than White for a long time – Maguire for example – still have a place in the squad.
That’s just not right at all, irrespective of how good the Manchester United star has been for the Three Lions in the past.
If White continues to play well, Southgate has to call him up for the World Cup in Qatar. If the England boss snubs him again, serious questions will have to be asked.
