Gareth Southgate names latest England squad amidst Ben White controversy

National World - LocalTV

Gareth Southgate has named his latest England squad amidst Ben White controversy, with the Arsenal man asking not to be selected. Daniel Wales reports from Wembley.

Transcript

00:00 Underneath the famous arch of Wembley Stadium, England manager Gareth Southgate was to name

00:07 his latest Three Lions squad. Several usual names have been hit by injury whilst on club

00:13 duty and Southgate addressed the selection issues he has had in the run up to this international

00:20 break.

00:21 "Well it's always difficult of course. We've seen to the last few weekends we've lost two

00:29 or three players every weekend. But completely out of our control and we have to adjust and

00:36 adapt and make the best decisions possible in that situation. And of course it gives

00:42 opportunities for other people to come in and start playing. So we're always looking

00:48 at the positive side of that."

00:50 Calvin Phillips moved from Manchester City to West Ham on loan in search of game time

00:55 and despite gaining that, he has been left out of this squad due to his performances

01:00 dropping below his usual standards.

01:01 "Well I think he knows exactly what we think of him. I think we've shown that support.

01:08 A good version of him is an important player for us and that's why we've supported him

01:14 as we have. We don't have many players of that profile so unfortunately his performance

01:21 just hasn't been good enough. I've spoken to him about that, he understands. He's got

01:28 all the attributes to force his way back in and we're really keen for him to do that.

01:35 But I said towards the end of last year when we were picking squads, if he had continued

01:42 not to play at City that was going to be a problem. He just needs to find that remit

01:47 and confidence because there's an outstanding player in there and I'm sure he'll find that."

01:53 The big news came when Southgate revealed that Ben White of Arsenal had asked not to

01:58 be considered for this England squad.

02:00 "Clearly on form, I can't sit here and say he doesn't deserve to be in. We, Joe and

02:07 Macdonald had a call from Ed in the last week to say that Ben didn't want to be considered

02:13 for England squads at this time. For me that's a great shame. He's a player I really like.

02:20 He's a player that we took to the Euros when he was at Brighton, a player that we took

02:28 to the World Cup. I spoke to him post-Catard because I was keen to pick him and there was

02:35 clearly reticence on his side. I don't know fully why that is but I think he's a player

02:42 that can make a difference for England. But he's not available to us. The only other thing

02:49 I would say is there is no issue between us at all."

03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended