The Arsenal right back Ben White was left out of Gareth Southgate’s squad to face Wales in the last World Cup Group game, and then left the England camp in Qatar to return home, with the FA citing ‘personal reasons’.
“Ben White has left England’s training base in Al Wakrah and returned home for personal reasons,” read an FA statement.
“The Arsenal defender is not expected to return to the squad for the remainder of the tournament. We ask that the player’s privacy is respected at this moment in time.”
Well, we at JustArsenal agreed not to join in with any rumours or conspiracy theories because we agreed his “privacy should be respected” as we had no idea of the causes.
Now it seems that the Daily Star has revealed that White had simply had an argument with his coach Steve Holland.
They reported in an Exclusive article: It’s understood the Arsenal defender became unhappy in the England camp and struggled to mix with his fellow team-mates.
And the final straw came when he had a fall out with Gareth Southgate’s No2 Holland in front of the rest of the squad.
The pair are understood to have exchanged words when White turned up for a team meeting ahead of the Group B clash with the USA not knowing some vital information relating to his personal stats.
To me that all sounds a bit vague, although a public argument with a coach over not doing his homework could be expected to have repurcussions, like a detention or even expulsion, but it could hardly be called “personal reasons”, like having a house invasion, or a death in the family.
If this is true (and surely the Star wouldn’t have published it if it wasn’t) then I cannot understand why it had to be so cloaked in secrecy.
Why did they have to try and pull the wool over our eyes?
Darren N
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