Hopefully this means Brighton will advance on their interest in James and bid £20-25m.
Ben White | Arsenal
- Thread starter bond19821982
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He's no Phil Jones I agree.
A fitting signing for Arse.
What makes you say that about him? Do you think he isn’t physical enough to be a top CB?
He's a decent player. A bit like Wan-Bissaka, he's never worth £50m but both clearly have potential and that's the tax you pay on promising young English players.
He's not really like AWB. Ben White's strengths are on the ball and he's certainly more in the modern style of centre back. I think the issue with AWB has always been that he's more of a throw back full back. It is a mad fee for Arsenal though when you consider how tight their owners are - £70m on Pepe and £50m on White is certainly eyebrow raising.
If only we were the draw Arsenal are currently, and were going places like that club clearly is. No daft European distractions to deal with either. Wish we had the Spanish David Moyes
Don’t be jealous, we already touched gold with the original and saw him lift a trophy and have a great 15 minutes against Bayern Munich at our great club
I think the only similarities he drew with AWB is that they are English and young they both cost way more they are technically worth. Not the style of play.
I'm inclined to agree with him. Roma bought Spinazzola for £25m in 2019 (same year we got AWB). They paid half the price for twice the fullback. No one outside the EPL would pay these £50m prices for AWB or Ben White.
£50m for Ben White is embarrassing
Is Spinazzola twice the full back that AWB is? I’m not so sure.
AWB is a really top ball winner and is 5 years younger. Spinazzola just had a good 3 games for Italy in the Euros, but he has had a nomadic career and has done very little in the game until recently.
I would argue that, at this stage, AWB could develop to be twice the player that Spinazzola is. That is still very much on the cards.
It's the classic recency bias.
It'll also be seen if Martial starts the season on fire, and almost everyone slating him last season goes quiet.
That's true but Spinazzola's whole reputation is based on a few games at an international tournament. He's 28 and spent most of his career on loan from Juve. He plays for the side that finished 7th in Europe 4th ranked league. He's literally a Europa League player. People put far too much weight on tournament performances. There's a a reason that scouts don't judge players on international performances. I'm not saying that Spinazolla isn't a good player but I don't think he's the zinger in this argument that you think he is. I do think that 'English tax' is real though and that £50m for White is a very lot, especially for a 'frugal' club like Arsenal.
Nah he's had a great season at Roma as well. What you couldn't deny about him is his injury record is not even close to as good as AWB, he plays on the opposite side and he's 5 years older. Apart from all that he's a great comparison.
Might be similar to Stones who arrived with lots of hype and an expensive fee at City and eventually came good this season for City and England
Or like Vermaelen who played CB but his main draw was coming forward and always had issues defensively
So you don't think that £25m is a lot for a player that spent most of his career in the Italian second division, who's appearance record is 30, 10, 24, 27 since he's been in Serie A and who has only made 228 top flight appearances in senior football by age 28?
If he has a shit season he might find himself with no interest from big clubs at all.
Arsenal are a huge club. Would you honestly turn their off down in the hope that a bigger club comes in for you next summer?
The owners are not tight, they're incompetent.
If I was the next hyped up young English CB? Yes. Chelsea or City would have come in for him eventually imo
But Arsenal will give him the step up in competition and financial rewards earlier. And they have some good players... I dont think its out of the question for them to have a good season at go for top 4
At least in Maguire's case it could have been argued at the time he was a top 10 CB(at least) in the league, 3 seasons of PL experience, a full English International and a solid World Cup Campaign(and goal) to his name.
White has ZERO England caps, ONE season of PL football, not even Brighton's best CB and I can comfortably name 10 CB in the league better than him
One shit season at BHA won't make any difference. If he is shit , then this move won't make any difference either and he will eventually be sold anyway.
I understand the financial gain but one more year at BHA would do him wonders.
White has 2 England caps
It’s always a bit odd to me when we as fans start deciding the value of a player. The amount of analysis that professionals must do before dropping these sorts of money on a player but x_wazza_4_eva_69_x could have saved them the trouble because he already knows they’re worth 22.6m at most.
What do you think when it turns out a poster on the internet is right and the club was wrong? Coincidence every time?
Not sure what this means for how Arsenal will line up. White played typically in a 3 CB formation at BHA or as a holding mid, Potter seemed reluctant to use him at CB in a 4. I wonder if Arteta is going to try a different formation?
Nah, not every time. I’m not saying fans know nothing and clubs know everything or anything like that. I think if a club is dropping many millions of £ though it’s fair to assume they’ve had people with a lot more expertise than any of us look at a player in a lot more detail than any of us.
You would hope so. But that unfortunately doesnt mean they look at the right data or draw the right conclusion. I think clubs get it wrong far too often to never question their methods, unless you are at a specific club who always seem to unearth relatively unknown gems to restock after you sell for big money. Those few clubs are clearly at the top end of analysis.
No better than Joe Gomez when he's back fit. Didn't have to pay 50m for him either.
There's always hope he will turn into a very good player, but when you look at how much we paid for Bailly and Lindelof combined, then the fee does not look bad at all.
No not really, given he's one of the best full backs in the world.
Seems a high fee to me for an Italian side given how injury prone he is and now he’s out for half of the season with his second major injury in the past few years. The injury he has now is one of the worst you can get in terms of future impact on physicality so perhaps Roma will pay for that gamble.
Will raise Declan Rice fee even higher. If Whites worth 50 then Rice willl be 80
Brighton should just give us the 50 for James and Tuenzebe. Not that I want to sell Tuenzebe but if he is being sold then thats a brilliant bit of business for Brighton and we can use the 50 on a DM.
He's a good player with plenty of potential but Arsenal have overpaid.
Lots of people writing off this transfer as too much, but as a Brighton fan I disagree. This lad is pure quality and will only improve. Though every transfer is a gamble, I think his price will only go up from here and his potential for improvement is huge.
White is a fantastic reader of the game, I guess working under Bielsa and Potter have definitely helped with that, he is rarely caught out of position and has a great understanding of positioning around him.
He has a good tackle on him and though he is not a pure defenders defender, his game is more about progression and possession, if he does have to put in a last ditch tackle in the box, it is generally well timed nd successful. Given his positioning and tackling he is very difficult to get past.
He's a good passer of the ball and can progress the ball quickly, he also has a good eye for a pass, one of his greatest strengths is his ability to quickly switch the team from defence to attack with a very quick transition.
His biggest weakness is heading and he is quite easily muscled off the ball in these scenarios, but he is working on this and will bulk up a bit at Arsenal I imagine.
He can also play across the backline and is equally as comfortable in a back 3 or 4, as well s CDM. This lad is pure quality and now Arsenal hve lost Luiz I can see why they want White. The speed White is prgressing within the game I would expect his value to rocket, 50M for him this window will look cheap in 2-3 years time, I see him as similar to Ferdinand, not necessarily noted for his physical style like a typical English CB, but instead absolutely stand out for his technical ability, positioning and ability on the ball and for White this will only improve.
You might not be able to guess from this post, but I rate White quite a bit!
White is a fantastic reader of the game, I guess working under Bielsa and Potter have definitely helped with that, he is rarely caught out of position and has a great understanding of positioning around him.
He has a good tackle on him and though he is not a pure defenders defender, his game is more about progression and possession, if he does have to put in a last ditch tackle in the box, it is generally well timed nd successful. Given his positioning and tackling he is very difficult to get past.
He's a good passer of the ball and can progress the ball quickly, he also has a good eye for a pass, one of his greatest strengths is his ability to quickly switch the team from defence to attack with a very quick transition.
His biggest weakness is heading and he is quite easily muscled off the ball in these scenarios, but he is working on this and will bulk up a bit at Arsenal I imagine.
He can also play across the backline and is equally as comfortable in a back 3 or 4, as well s CDM. This lad is pure quality and now Arsenal hve lost Luiz I can see why they want White. The speed White is prgressing within the game I would expect his value to rocket, 50M for him this window will look cheap in 2-3 years time, I see him as similar to Ferdinand, not necessarily noted for his physical style like a typical English CB, but instead absolutely stand out for his technical ability, positioning and ability on the ball and for White this will only improve.
You might not be able to guess from this post, but I rate White quite a bit!
Totally agree. Might have overpaid a bit but people suggesting he's a 20-30 player are way off.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ben-white-set-for-medical-after-arsenal-agree-50m-deal-with-brighton-amp-hove-albion-dp0rkpzj2
4 years contract // 120k pw
£30m to be paid before the beginning of the 2022-23 season, remaining £20m to be paid by Summer of 2024.
Sell on clause dependent on international career + PL/CL performances.
Hopefully that leaves us a bit of room to get other players in.
We're going to have a very young back 4: Bellerin/Chambers (26) - White (23) - Gabriel (23) -Tierney (24)
4 years contract // 120k pw
£30m to be paid before the beginning of the 2022-23 season, remaining £20m to be paid by Summer of 2024.
Sell on clause dependent on international career + PL/CL performances.
Hopefully that leaves us a bit of room to get other players in.
We're going to have a very young back 4: Bellerin/Chambers (26) - White (23) - Gabriel (23) -Tierney (24)
They have only over paid if his value plummets. We have seen some big fees for playes with little experience that are worth 2/3x the fee now.
Though Im personally still not convinced. He looks good on the ball and reading the game which is of course good in the modern game....but so far not seen anything to suggest that actually defending he can progress to a real top top class centre back that such a fee suggests. He is though one of currently not many good ENglish centre backs, that in itself partly explains the fee.
Then again, could also argue over the last decade there have been fees of £30m or so for very average British centre backs that are good pros and I do think he can go on to be better than them so its not ridiculous, not within our own league anyway
Though Im personally still not convinced. He looks good on the ball and reading the game which is of course good in the modern game....but so far not seen anything to suggest that actually defending he can progress to a real top top class centre back that such a fee suggests. He is though one of currently not many good ENglish centre backs, that in itself partly explains the fee.
Then again, could also argue over the last decade there have been fees of £30m or so for very average British centre backs that are good pros and I do think he can go on to be better than them so its not ridiculous, not within our own league anyway
Please delete if this has been posted but apparently the sale of Ben White for £50m will exceed the accumulated total sales of Brighton players in the club's history since it formed in 1901 until 2020. Crazy if true.
Wish we already have mate. Will Fish will be in the first team in no time..If only we were the draw Arsenal are currently, and were going places like that club clearly is. No daft European distractions to deal with either. Wish we had the Spanish David Moyes