On the plus side, Ben White wants to play for England again so we'll finally have a good RB available to us at last soon.
This entirely. If you're so thin skinned that Gareth Southgate offends you enough to turn your back on representing your country then I think they'll have to cope without him. We've got a plethora of mediocre CB's and full-backs let's at least pick one of them that wants to play.
There are multiple reasons why people would have a perfectly justified reason to refuse to represent a team. Or do you think anyone should represent who they're asked to represent regardless of any reason?
Personally I think it is a huge honour to be selected to play for your country - opting out is a slight on that selection unless it is down to injury or retirement (from the international game to prolong your club one) ... it should not be due to throwing your toys out of the pram because the manager limits your sunbed time or access to your personal hair stylist or manicurist...none of those are 'perfectly justified' for me
This isn't the either/or polemic you've conveniently attempted to simply it to become. I think people should absolutely have the choice to represent, they're not slaves and can do what they want. However, if you chose not to represent your country then in most situations I think that's kind of the end of the story. They are a team representing a nation, once you allow individuals to dictate the terms then you're simply better off picking other players for whom they felt it was an easier choice.
Conversely I always kind of understood why Carragher removed himself from England selection. An excellent defender who was unlucky to have come through at a time when the likes of Campbell, Terry and Ferdinand were at CB and Neville was at RB. The mental toll of being regularly selected for squads and flying around the world to then often just sit on a bench and being expected to smile about it, I think at some point you do just put your hands up and say "thanks but I'm done". Any of those 5 defenders would walk into our current set up tbh.
Well there's hearsay it was something like that. Do you actually know what it was or are you just assuming and extrapolating?
Well fine but I disagree. If your fundamental problem is with the people asking you to do the honourable thing, rather than the honourable thing itself, then I don't see why the honourable thing is what should be permanently removed. If your problem was with the honourable thing then yes, permanently bin them off and don't ask them again.
We don’t know exactly why Ben Orange flounced but nobody else seemed to have an issue or at least not to the extent they sacked off playing for England. If he was such an incredible player we couldn’t do without him then maybe it’s a different story but he’s a decent full-back who can cover at centre-half. I think it’s a stronger message to **** him off.
No we don't. But similarly, there are some people who don't moan about sexism or racism and just tolerate it, and that doesn't mean everyone should just tolerate it as acceptable.
To be fair Haslam doesn’t normally talk bollox. He just writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes and writes
