Mikel Arteta has defended Ben White’s “brave” decision to make himself unavailable for England under Gareth Southgate and revealed the 27-year-old had been “struggling” with the national team.
The Arsenal defender has not played for his country since leaving England’s squad at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar for personal reasons after a rumoured falling-out with the then assistant Steve Holland, but is back in the frame after talks with Thomas Tuchel. The new England manager confirmed White “would love to be back in the squad” despite not being picked for the World Cup qualifiers against Latvia and Albania as he returns from a long spell out after knee surgery in November.
White’s decision to not play for Southgate has been heavily criticised, and the former England captain Stuart Pearce said on Friday that if players let you down once “they will always let you down”. Arteta would not divulge details of why White withdrew from England selection but insisted the right choice had been made at the time.
“I was very involved in the moment that happened and I know how Ben felt and that was for me very, very clear the reason why he made that decision, how he was feeling about it and how he was struggling,” Arsenal’s manager said.
Arteta strongly disputed that White did not care about playing for England. “It certainly wasn’t about that. It was about being the opposite, just facing the situation and saying: ‘I cannot handle it now and I am not the best person to represent the country the way I feel right now.’ So for me it was completely the opposite. I think not a lot of people would do it. What a lot of people would do is hide in that context, in that environment, and let time go and nobody talks about it. What he did in my opinion was very brave and not a lot of people would have done it.”
Asked about Pearce’s comments, Arteta said: “From what I understand the reasons, it wasn’t about letting somebody down. He was just telling somebody: ‘I don’t want to let you down and this is the way I feel. I think it’s very difficult for me to give you what you need.’ So I think it was very different.
“Whatever the outcome is what I want is Ben to be happy, that he feels fulfilled and he really feels his next decision. And knowing Ben, his decision is not going to be influenced by somebody else – he really needs to feel it. If they found that chemistry between Thomas and him that’s great. If he wants to come and Thomas wants him, great, because he has the level and certainly the potential in his career to achieve great things with the national team.”
Arteta said Bukayo Saka was getting closer to making his return after hamstring surgery and would step up his recovery in training next week having been out since December. “He is going to be here, hopefully more with the ball at his feet than he has had,” he said.
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“That will mean he is passing the ball and shooting and running and everything. He has done quite a lot already on the pitch working on his own. Next we need to arrange it with people around him in a more competitive training session and see how he goes with that.”
