Micah Richards has now been sharing his thoughts on some recent comments he’s heard about an Arsenal player during the international break.
With last night’s games now concluded, Mikel Arteta will now begin to welcome back several players, joining the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Ben White who didn’t go away this week.
It’s probably been a period of both preparing for Manchester City and also taking some time to decide a shortlist for the summer for Arteta, who will have been in close contact with Edu Gaspar.
Considering how quick Arsenal were to execute deals for the likes of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz last summer, they are surely already well underway with this season’s plans.
That being said, Ben White was one of two players to sign a new contract recently alongside Takehiro Tomiyasu, a testament to how well the club is being run right now.
It didn’t quite seem a complete coincidence that Arsenal timed the announcement right alongside all the England commotion that followed surrounding White’s involvement – with Gareth Southgate somewhat lifting the lid on what had been a muted subject.
And given all that has happened, Micah Richards has now been commenting on some remarks Southgate made about White when briefing the press.
Micah Richards can’t quite understand Gareth Southgate’s comments about Arsenal’s Ben White
Speaking alongside Alan Shearer on ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast, Richards couldn’t quite understand how Southgate had handled the situation.
He explained: “What was interesting about it is the talk around it when Gareth came out and said basically he’s spoken to Edu and said he didn’t want to be considered.
“So that’s the bit I find a little bit weird, like why is that in public news? And Gareth said, what I didn’t understand, he said he doesn’t know the reasons why – but surely as England manager you would know the reasons why, that’s the bit I didn’t really understand.”
Shearer added: “I think for Gareth to come out and say that, he knows that he would have got huge questions and loads of questions as to why he hasn’t picked him and he had to come out and say that first to clear him of that.”
Of course, this is topic that will likely simmer down now until England announce their squad for the June friendlies and then the Euros.
There seems very little chance that anything will happen before then, with the £50m Arsenal defender likely to play no part.
But given there’s a lot of speculation regarding Gareth Southgate’s future following the tournament, it would be interesting to see if White returned under new management.
The post 'Little bit weird': Micah Richards can't understand something said about £50m Arsenal player recently appeared first on TBR Football.