The Chris Wheatley Show is a brand new weekly series talking all things Arsenal and the Premier League. This week, Chris Wheatley and host Jason Jones reveal all about Ben White, Gabriel Martinelli, latest injury news and much more.
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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)