00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Hello, welcome to another episode of the Chris Wheatley Show,
00:06 Shot's TV's one-stop shop to keep you in the know
00:08 on all things Arsenal.
00:09 I'm your host, Jason Jones.
00:11 I'm joined, as always, by Chris Wheatley.
00:13 This week, we'll be talking about the international break.
00:15 We'll be looking ahead to Arsenal's title
00:18 defining clash with Manchester City.
00:19 And as always, we'll be putting your listener questions to Chris as well.
00:22 So without further ado, Chris,
00:25 no Arsenal action to discuss from the weekend.
00:27 We're in the midst of an international break.
00:29 Plenty of Arsenal players jetting off around the globe,
00:33 but various fixtures here and there,
00:35 but a few that aren't as well.
00:37 Just wondering if you could sort of give us a bit of an update
00:39 on the squad and where everybody's at at the moment.
00:41 Yeah, absolutely.
00:44 Good to be here as always, Jason.
00:46 And I think those Arsenal players are jetting around the world.
00:49 Wouldn't it be nice to jet around the world right now as a journalist?
00:55 Unfortunately, we don't have that luxury,
00:58 but we do have the luxury of speaking about some of those players
01:01 on international duty.
01:03 And actually, there's quite a few players staying at home,
01:06 which is maybe a bit of a surprise because
01:09 when you look at the amount of international players
01:11 that Arsenal have at the moment,
01:13 there's quite a few.
01:14 But fortunately for Mikkel Arteta, you could say,
01:18 he has the luxury of having some of those players
01:22 staying in London, working on their fitness
01:25 due to a number of different reasons.
01:28 And we're going to go through those.
01:29 But the latest one was Gabriel, the Arsenal centre-back
01:33 who withdrew from the Brazil squad yesterday.
01:36 They didn't actually have too far to go, Brazil.
01:40 They're training at Arsenal's training ground
01:42 for their upcoming games against England and Spain.
01:46 So they don't have too far to go.
01:48 Gabriel probably could just wake up in the morning
01:50 as he usually does and train.
01:53 So yeah, Gabriel not involved in Brazil's squad.
01:57 Gabriel Martinelli, the same with an injury.
02:00 Gabriel Jesus, also sidelined.
02:02 So the three Gabriels all out of Brazil's squad
02:07 for those games.
02:08 I think that's good news for Arsenal.
02:10 They have that big game against Manchester City
02:12 coming up at the end of the month.
02:14 And that means that those players are going to be
02:16 fully fresh and rested, you'd like to think,
02:20 for that big game at the Yeti Huts.
02:22 So yeah, that's a brief overview of those Brazil players.
02:26 But there's also a number of other players
02:29 like Takehiro Tomiyasu, who is staying
02:31 and working on his fitness.
02:33 And Thomas Partey, who withdrew from Ghana's squad
02:36 for their upcoming games.
02:38 He is not injured.
02:40 Arsenal fans will be delighted to know he's not injured.
02:43 He is working on his fitness and fine-tuning his fitness
02:48 ahead of that game against Manchester City.
02:50 It's just not worth the risk, I think, for Mikel Arteta
02:55 and I think with Ghana, they decided that he won't be risked.
02:58 So yeah, that's a brief overview.
03:00 Haven't mentioned Ben White, of course.
03:02 That's a whole different situation altogether.
03:04 There's no injury for Ben White.
03:06 He decided that he doesn't want to be called up
03:09 to the England squad.
03:10 Yeah, it's a really interesting situation,
03:14 the Ben White one, isn't it?
03:15 So obviously there's been a lot of talk about it
03:17 since the news broke that he sort of excluded himself
03:20 from selection.
03:22 Obviously, we know that he hasn't always had the,
03:24 shall we say, the smoothest relationship with the national
03:27 squad, some withdrawals here and there.
03:29 Just interested to get your opinion on it because,
03:32 you know, the backlash has been quite harsh,
03:35 I think it's fair to say.
03:36 Yeah, really harsh.
03:38 Some really strong comments from people in the football industry.
03:42 You've got Harry Redknapp going on National Radio
03:45 calling his decision disgusting not to play for England.
03:49 You've got Jermaine Genas, a pundit on Match of the Day
03:52 saying it's a strange decision.
03:54 My personal opinion is that Ben White has made a decision
04:00 which he should be respected for.
04:03 I don't think he deserves criticism.
04:05 There's a lot of patriotism when it comes to playing
04:09 for your country, especially in England.
04:11 I think there's almost a kind of superiority complex
04:17 we have that players should be so grateful to play
04:20 for their country.
04:21 And while it is, I'm sure, a really great honour for
04:23 a lot of players, perhaps other players just don't want
04:27 to be involved and don't see it in the same vein.
04:30 I think Ben White has already played for his country.
04:33 He was called up to the World Cup where, of course,
04:34 he wasn't really involved.
04:36 There's been some rumours that he fell out with the
04:38 coach, with the assistant coach, Steve Holland.
04:41 None of it's been substantiated, but I do think that
04:46 Ben White does deserve a bit more respect from those
04:50 in the football industry.
04:51 And I think Harry Odenaar is probably going a bit
04:53 too far by saying it's disgusting that he's not playing
04:57 for his country.
04:58 I personally think that, as I said, he deserves a bit
05:01 more respect and his performances for Arsenal this season
05:04 have been superb.
05:05 And I think now Gareth Saltgate's in a bit of position
05:10 where he kind of has to acknowledge that Ben White
05:12 does deserve a call-up to the squad.
05:14 Maybe in the past, Ben White wouldn't have been a starter
05:19 for England, but you could argue now that he's probably
05:21 the best right back that England have and for sure
05:25 that Arsenal have.
05:26 So yeah, it's an interesting decision.
05:28 I'm interested to hear what you think as well, James.
05:31 Yeah, I mean, I'm inclined to agree with you, Chris.
05:35 I think that, obviously, I think as football fans,
05:39 you know, as people who consume the game, the instinct
05:42 is to think, why on earth wouldn't you want to play
05:45 for your country?
05:45 But at the same time, if Ben White has reached a decision,
05:49 and if he feels that it's the best thing for him not
05:52 to play for England, then there is an element of you
05:54 have to respect that.
05:55 You can't force him to put on the shirt, can you?
05:57 That is his prerogative.
05:59 And I do think that, you know, maybe some of the
06:02 pundit reaction is, you know, like you say, perhaps
06:05 being blinded a little bit by this patriotism.
06:07 But I also think it's worth pointing out, as you've
06:10 sort of alluded to there, that there's probably an element
06:12 of frustration as well.
06:13 When you look at England's right back situation, it
06:16 is, generally speaking, one of our stronger positions.
06:19 You know, do you think if everybody was fit, Gareth Southgate
06:22 would be chosen from the likes of Rhys James, Trent
06:24 Alexander-Arnold, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker, and then
06:28 Ben White on top of that, if he was available for selection?
06:31 I mean, as it happens, obviously, Alexander-Arnold and
06:33 Rhys James are both out injured at the moment.
06:36 It sort of limits Southgate's options a bit, but I do
06:39 think it's absolutely fair to suggest that, especially
06:41 given these two friendlies, if Ben White was available
06:45 for selection, not only would he be in the squad, I would
06:48 like to think that Southgate would have potentially started
06:51 just to see what he could do in that position and how
06:53 he would fit into the team.
06:54 So I do think there is maybe an element of people looking
06:57 at it and going, well, you know, England are, to an extent,
07:00 being deprived of one of their better players here.
07:02 But when all is said and done, Ben White doesn't want
07:05 to play for England.
07:06 Ben White's not going to play for England and, you know,
07:08 any amount of outlandish outcry from pundits or supporters
07:13 or anybody, it's not going to affect that, you know?
07:15 Yeah, absolutely.
07:18 I agree.
07:18 And I think clearly Ben White is a player who, I mean,
07:24 I'm not a fan of talking too much about players' personalities
07:27 and their characters and stuff, because I think when
07:29 we're talking about football as journalists, we should
07:31 really just be speaking about the football side of things.
07:34 But I think nowadays maybe that's changed a little bit
07:36 and players are certainly open to showing their personalities
07:40 more and Ben White is someone who really admits in public
07:45 that he doesn't like watching football outside of his
07:47 own analysis of games, of his own games.
07:51 I think that's a really interesting and bold admission
07:56 to make when you're a professional footballer playing
07:58 for Arsenal and a lot of football fans, they don't understand
08:01 that, they don't understand that Ben White just doesn't
08:03 have that interest in football that maybe the fans do.
08:07 And it really doesn't have any kind of effect on how
08:10 he plays as we've seen this season.
08:12 He looks at his own clips, of course, he studies his own
08:15 game and looks at improving himself.
08:19 But when it comes to sitting down and maybe watching
08:21 a 90-minute match, he doesn't do that.
08:23 And I think Ben White is just, maybe just has his own
08:29 view on things which maybe other people in football
08:32 just don't really understand because he's going against
08:34 the grain and we've seen it before with players who have
08:38 gone against the grain.
08:39 Hector Bellerin, as an example, is someone who really
08:41 did things differently in terms of his social media,
08:44 his interest in fashion.
08:46 He was really open in showing his personality, which
08:50 was different to a lot of other players.
08:51 And I think he got a lot of criticism for that from fans,
08:54 but now people give him a lot of respect and he gets
08:58 a lot of sponsorship deals as well for being unique.
09:02 I think that's something that should be applauded
09:04 rather than criticized.
09:05 But in terms of Ben White's decision, I think it's
09:09 his own decision that he deserves respect for.
09:13 And yeah, I think a lot of the criticism is really
09:16 over the top.
09:17 (upbeat music)
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