Ben White’s England refusal shows a shift in loyalties towards club football

Gareth Southgate spoke about the process of Ben White’s refusal, making it clear that as far as he was concerned, it was entirely White’s decision. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Here it comes, then. Generation Z: international 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.