The grumpy defender wearing a soul patch was handed a get-out-of-jail-free card after being selected to replace injured Jarrell Quansah. It’s such an incomprehensible, spineless and convenient decision that it makes a mockery of the very concept of national service.
He is now free to play for England for the first time since abandoning his country midway through the 2022 World Cup. Because he doesn’t seem capable of fending off well-deserved criticism. Let’s be clear about what happened in Qatar.
England’s assistant, Steve Holland, reportedly took the bold step of doing something that people at British Rail would not be able to do – ask Mr White to do his job. He asked me to look at some stats, study my opponents and show some passing interest in a sport that pays for a mahogany-hued lifestyle.
What was Mr. White’s reaction? He dumped toys from his stroller into the Persian Gulf before hopping on the first plane back to London. In the heat of the World Cup, he felt a little hurt and abandoned his teammates. It was a level of fragility usually characteristic of Victorian poets, expensive soufflés, or Bruno Fernandes after being tapped on the shoulder.
Bringing him back now isn’t just a bad decision. That’s an insult to every kid who ever dreamed of representing the Three Lions and kicked a burst ball at a garage door. It’s a slap in the face for the players who crawled through broken glass and a mile of sewage just to sit on the bench in a friendly against San Marino.
White famously claims he doesn’t even like soccer. He treats this beautiful game with the same weary attitude a teenager might have going to the garden center on a Sunday morning. If he is so bored with sports, why do we need him to endure the “hardships” of international assignments?
Recalling White would send the kind of pitiful and counterproductive message that Keir Starmer’s U-turn would send: that it’s okay to abandon your country, disrespect your coach and treat your international shirt with the utter contempt that Sadiq Khan treats working-class Londoners, and yet we’ll still crawl back the second our hamstrings tingle.
This is said to be a new era for Britain. If that’s the case, it shouldn’t seem like a trash can to a player who doesn’t have the stamina to take harsh words from a coach. The England national team should not be a sanctuary for the ‘snowflake’ generation of footballers who believe that accusations amount to human rights violations.
Ben White has abdicated his national responsibility in Qatar. He revealed that his ego was more important than the collective, a gleaming monument to modern selfishness.
In any other walk of life, if you quit your job in the middle of your employer’s biggest project just because they asked you to read a book, you would be handed a P45 and treated with the same warmth that Just Stop Oil protesters treat a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Please keep him away. England needs lions, not lizards that flee to the nearest rock when the heat rises. Making him wear that shirt again is not just a mistake, but a complete abandonment of British standards.
