White's England refusal shows loyalty shift to clubs

A potentially first-choice player is turning downa major tournament and we may have to get used toit

- Barney Ronay

Here it comes, then. Generation international Z: football mode. No doubt there will be a temptation in some corners to interpret Ben White's refusal of an England call-up, three months out from Euro 2024, through the prism of generational anxiety.

Vegan sausage rolls and moral relativism brought us to this. It starts with turning down an England cap. It ends with throwing soup at statues and refusing to storm a Russian machine gun nest on the grounds this might constitute a micro-aggression.

In reality the most surprising thing about White's decision to exempt himself from England duty is that this hasn't happened more overtly more often. Some will reflexively blame Gareth Southgate, will see a failure of management and bridge-building, of St Crispin's Day motivational powers. But the more likely outcome is that this is going to happen a great deal more in the years to come, to the extent the current era of consensus may come to look like a golden age.

One of Southgate's first acts in the England job was to speak openly about the need to keep motivating players to want to come and do this. Scroll back down the decades and players have always ducked out of England squads, usually under cover of injury. Paul Scholes retired from England duty aged 29 because he just wasn't enjoying it any more. Raheem Sterling missed a few squads not long before his ultimate dropping.