Stars finally align for Ben White with Tuchel ending defender’s England exile
It was surely the moment of the match for Arsenal, albeit the bar was set low. The Carabao Cup final on Sunday appeared to be beyond them, Manchester City 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go and now Rayan Cherki was taking the mickey. The City winger controlled a crossfield pass on his chest and proceeded to play a bit of keepy-uppy.
Ben White was having none of it and when the ball was returned to Cherki, the Arsenal right-back smashed through him, picking up a yellow card but able to sport it like a badge of honour. The City manager, Pep Guardiola, shook his head – definitely at Cherki – and it is fair to say that White’s old‑school reaction played well with everyone at Arsenal.
What of Thomas Tuchel? The England manager, who was in the Wembley posh seats, has never been averse to a bit of devilment. Less than 24 hours later, he had given White an England recall.
It was not for that reason, of course – however much fun it might be to imagine it that way. Tuchel has wanted to involve White ever since he named his first squad last March. It has not been possible, mainly because of White’s injury problems. The stars have finally aligned, Jarell Quansah’s withdrawal giving Tuchel the opportunity he has long talked about in private – and with White, as well.
Tuchel, already without his first-choice right-back, Reece James, because of injury, was never going to turn to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is so far down the pecking order he barely has a place on it. Tuchel has Djed Spence in front of him and Tino Livramento, who he has also recalled for the Wembley friendlies against Uruguay on Friday and Japan next Tuesday. Livramento has been kept out of the Newcastle starting XI for the last two matches by Kieran Trippier, who announced his England retirement in 2024.
The wider point with White is that hot takes and popular perceptions can be misleading. The 28-year-old is sometimes seen as the footballer who hates football; he is this generation’s Benoît Assou-Ekotto. It is based on how White grew up in Dorset with parents who were not bothered about the game; there was none of the usual tribalism for him. The matches were never on TV in his house. Just as they are not nowadays, either.
It is nonsense to suggest that White hates playing football. He loves it and always has. He is a warrior in training, a true competitor in games, someone who wants to excel and win. It is just that when the sessions are over and the matches finished, he wants to do other things. Like chill with his wife and young son. Go for dog-walks. Eat out. As with Assou‑Ekotto, the former Tottenham left-back, who also loved playing, the game is a job, not a way of life.
When fans consider White and England, they do not think about what he has done in the shirt, largely because he has only four caps. They think about when he did not want to play, when he found he could not do so. When he quit the squad during the Qatar World Cup in 2022 and went home. It was the last time he was involved with it.
Plenty has been said and written about White’s relationship with Gareth Southgate’s assistant coach, Steve Holland. Suffice to say he did not like him. Would White have stayed in camp with a different and perhaps more sensitive brand of man-management? Only he can answer that.
It was a complicated situation, various factors coalescing. White had been a non-playing squad member throughout Euro 2020 and his tournament in Qatar followed a similar pattern. Which had to be taxing. Ditto the feeling for White of being immersed in a football environment 24/7. Where was the release? It was all too much.
White made himself unavailable for the remainder of the tenure of Southgate and Holland while he continued the self-imposed exile when Lee Carsley became the interim coach for the three international breaks towards the end of 2024. Was it because White saw Carsley as being linked to them through their Football Association backgrounds?
Shortly after Tuchel took charge, the overtures to White’s camp began and they found receptive ears. Tuchel said he did not want to call up White straight away because the player was only just back from a serious knee injury which needed surgery. Then, when White and his wife had a baby last June, Tuchel told White to spend the time with them rather than join up with England. He would call up White when the new season began.
Except it did not happen in September after White got injured in Arsenal’s first game at Manchester United. And it could not do so in October or November as White, despite being back to fitness, did not kick a ball in the Premier League. He could not get past Jurriën Timber in Mikel Arteta’s lineup.
It has been a difficult season for White, who has started only five times in the league; a difficult period really since his standout campaign in 2023-24 when Timber was out with an ACL rupture and White played more than he probably ought to have done, putting wear-and-tear problems in the post. The quality has never been in doubt. Tuchel cannot wait to see it close up.