The international break is over but the conversation around England’s potential squad for the European Championships continues ahead of the summer.
England failed to win in this international break, losing 1-0 to Belgium before rescuing a 2-2 draw against Belgium on Tuesday night.
Gareth Southgate was without a number of players over the last week with Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka among those ruled out.
That handed England a chance to look at some other players with the likes of Ivan Toney, Kobbie Mainoo, Jarrod Bowen and Anthony Gordon all featuring.
Southgate has been given plenty to think about ahead of Euro 2024 and it looks increasingly unlikely that Ben White will be involved.
The Arsenal defender hasn’t even been picked by England since leaving the World Cup squad in 2022.
Southgate has now confirmed that White has been asked not to be considered for England duty and it looks unlikely the the situation will change in the coming months.
The Telegraph claim that White had a spat with England coach Steve Holland in Qatar and that is the reason why he doesn’t want to be involved.
Maybe White will be back in the fold in the future but a change of heart before the European Championships looks unlikely – and Gary Neville has disagreed with Jamie Carragher’s verdict on him.
Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher on Ben White
Neville and Carragher have been speaking on The Overlap and have discussed White’s situation.
Carragher highlighted that White is well behind other right backs in the squad and shouldn’t be in the squad over them anyway.
Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Reece James are all ahead of White in Carragher’s mind and he doesn’t see him playing at centre back.
We have become so used to seeing White as a right back at Arsenal that it’s easy to forget that he was actually a centre back at Brighton and Hove Albion before his £50million move to North London.
England aren’t blessed with top centre back options right now and Neville feels that White would have a real chance of playing as a centre back if he made himself available.
JC: “I don’t think it should be made into a huge story because he’s not going to play anyway.”
GN: “He will now though, Carra. He’d play him centre back, I think.”
JC: “I don’t think so.”
GN: “Oh no, he would. I think he’d play now. Oh no, he would.”
JC: “He’s not going to play him centre back, he doesn’t even play centre back for his club!”
GN: “You watch those defenders that played for England last night, Ben White’s playing.”
JC: “It’s easy to say that now after the game, but he doesn’t play centre back for his club and John Stones is the Ben White if you like – you’re not going to play Ben White and John Stones together as centre backs.”
Harry Maguire and John Stones will surely head to Euro 2024 if they are both fit, but both have endured injury problems this season.
The spots behind Maguire and Stones are up for grabs though with a host of defenders in the mix for spots in the squad.
Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Lewis Dunk, Jarrad Branthwaite, Fikayo Tomori, Joe Gomez and Levi Colwill are all in Southgate’s thoughts for the summer.
White would surely be considered alongside those players as a centre back, even if he hasn’t played that role for a while now.
A return to the England fold doesn’t appear to be on the cards though and we may only see White reconsider his stance once Southgate and Holland move on.