Arsenal defender Ben White speaks out on being ruthlessly chucked out of dressing room

Arsenal’s Ben White has opened up about his challenging journey to the top, recounting how he was unceremoniously ‘kicked out’ of a first-team dressing room and pushed to train with the under-23s early in his career.

Despite now being one of the Premier Leagues standout right-backs since his £50million transfer to Arsenal, the 27-year-old defender had humble beginnings, rising through the ranks from League Two Newport County to Leeds United in the Championship.

White became a household name at Elland Road under Marcelo Bielsas guidance, helping Leeds ascend to the Premier League in 2021 as championship winners by playing all 46 league games.

However, White’s path to prominence was not without its obstacles. He recalls a particularly demotivating incident upon his arrival at Leeds during an Amazon Prime Video Sport interview: “When I first went to Leeds, I got in there, two days in I was in the first-team changing room.”

He continued, revealing the slight he faced when no one else was around, “The first team wasn’t in yet, for some reason, they were not there. They had a day off or something. I go in there, and someone comes in and tells me, ‘No, you’re in the 23s changing room’. Kicks me out of the first-team changing room, and puts me in the 23s. I stayed there for five, six weeks. So I’m ringing my agent saying, ‘What’s going on?”

White has revealed the tough love he received from Marcelo Bielsa during his time at Leeds United, recalling: “In my first training session, he didn’t speak any English so someone would interpret it. He said to me that I was too slow, I wasn’t agile enough and I wasn’t mentally quick enough, and just walked off. Didn’t speak to me again for probably months.”

White remembers Bielsa’s words being few but impactful: “I can probably count how many times he spoke to me. But when he would say something to you, you’d just do it. I think it was just for him to say to me, ‘You’re not at the highest level, you’ve got so much to improve on.'”

Now, White is a regular starter for Arsenal, competing at the highest level every week. The right-back is looking forward to facing Bournemouth on Saturday as the Gunners push for the title, followed by a Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk next Tuesday.