According to various reports, Arsenal are on the verge of signing Brighton defender Ben White in a deal that could be worth up to £50 million.
Writing for The Athletic, David Ornstein reports that ‘face-to-face’ talks have been held between the relevant parties and while personal terms are yet to be agreed, they are unlikely to be a stumbling block given we’re the type of club that merrily hands out £250,000 a week contracts to 32-year-old midfielders.
Despite Arsenal opting not to extend David Luiz’s contract, news of the Gunners’ interest in White came as a surprise when it leaked a couple of weeks ago.
Not only do we still have William Saliba on the books, but it was also assumed that having pleaded poor due to Covid, and having sacked a load of staff in the midst of a pandemic, we might not have too much cash to play with this summer. Especially given our failure to qualify for Europe for the first time in 25 years.
We can only speculate at this point how the deal is being funded. It’s possible we’re confident of selling a lot of the fringe players, our owners could be putting their hands in their pockets (stop laughing at the back) or we might be speculating against future earnings by using loan interest rate loans. Who knows, maybe it’s a combination of all three?
This is definitely a statement purchase but we can’t help feel a little uneasy about spending so much on a 23-year-old centre-back when we obviously need to fill several other key positions if we’re to provide a credible threat to the sides who finished above us last season. Presumably, we have a plan.
White, who’ll count as homegrown, is currently on international duty with England at the European Championship so we expect a formal announcement won’t be forthcoming until Germany knock out Southgate’s men on Tuesday.
Good proven player, good age, can slot in straight away and home grown. Provided we improve the squad elsewhere I can’t see any issues with this signing.
His versatility is also a plus here. Can play centre- and right-back.
The focus now turns to the midfield.
I hope we ain’t going to shell out that huge sum of money for a versatile player. How about playing him in one/single position he’s best at. Versatility is for fringe players, not expensive ones
Versatile Saka, Auba on wing, Henry on left wing, Mbappe on wing etc.
Huge amount?
Given it’s like most purchases, not all the cash up front, £50 for a decent British player is not ‘huge’ by any means.
If he is £50m, imagine how much a player like Dunk would cost?
Crazy world.
We probably bought him for midfield 😄
Right back
He’ll play the role Cancelo plays for City, Chambers played for us at the back end of last season
And the role Xhaka played when he was covering for Tierney, but on the right
That thought had crossed my mind too.
White played predominantly on the right of a back 3 last season, the term “central” defender, would imply he played centrally But when you look at his heat map, he played predominantly within a couple of metres of the right touch line, almost as a right sided defensive midfielder We might be signing him as a right sided centre back in a back 4, but if we are? Then we’ll be signing him to play there not based on his performances from last season, but because we want to convert him from the role he mainly played for Brighton last… Read more »
u think?
I’m just sorry he cost £50m
Echoes … nicely done!
If only there was a trophy for wasting money
Do not talk yourself into a physically weak centre back in the fucking Premier League.
The strong forwards are going to have a field day against him. Disaster.
As impressed you will be in his on the ball work, you will be left wanting in duels of strength and jumping reach. There are a lot of aerial and physical duels in a single game, and losing duels at the centre-back position is going to be painful.
Holding wins about 55% of his duels, White around 50%. Interestingly while stats don’t tell the full story, Holding made more passes per game (60 v 48) and had more accurate long passes than White, despite playing fewer games. At face value this doesn’t look like it will result in any significant leap forward for the third best defence of last season. I’ll be far more enthused about a new partner for Partey. I think far bigger improvements can be made to the starting XI here if we get that signing right.
I focused on his weakness in my above comment. Not the complete assessment of his quality. Positives: Ben White will be our team’s first attacker. He has good ball control to resist pressure. He can confidently step into midfield with the ball at his feet. He attracts an opposition man away from our midfield or attack, and make use of this disturbance with passing, technique and vision which he has. He has speed and quick feet to match attackers. He will be a good deep lying midfielder hidden at centre-back. He is English. We cannot fuck up with his resale… Read more »
Good assessment of the player, I’m hopeful he can make a difference for us, however at £50m we could easily screw up the resale vale – look at John Stones, £50m centre half who this time last year wasn’t starting for City and was being talked about being sold for £20-30m to the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea. Also the English premium for players only really holds in the English market. If he does well but the club needs to raise funds, the £80m bids will be coming form City, Utd and Chelsea, which isn’t ideal if we want to… Read more »
We’ll find a way
As long as we a have a strong pivot we should be fine. Bissouma preferably but Partey can get that job done too
Do you think Brighton will sell us both there players and risk relegation
Ben White might be good but why so many might have issue is with the fee we paying for him, could we not have bought a real world class defender. Laporte might be up for sale from city and don’t think even he would cost that much. Only time will tell if we the deal was worth the punt or will atleast tell the owners and directors how much a scouting department can help.
I’m not fully sold that 50M on Ben White now is a good idea. That said, do you think Laporte will want to quit Man City for Arsenal? Which world class defender is keen to play for Arsenal?
Good idea
For those worried about the price tag. Try to be enthusiastic rather than pessimistic about it. I think we are in for a pretty big summer of spending and this is hopefully the start of some much needed major investment
As long as we strengthen in other areas as well & don’t go into administration in the process, I couldn’t care less what he costs.
Ben White Ben White, he’s comfortable on the right,
Ben White Ben White, he’ll turn up on a flight,
Ben White Ben White, he’s not your average sight,
Ben White Ben White, he’s only 5ft height,
Ben White Ben White, he’ll show you wrong from right,
Ben White Ben White, we’ve got him, n he’s alright.
For a minute I thought you wrote, “he’ll turn up in the night,” which could be sexy or terrifying, I suppose. Or both.
Remember Saliba? Guy we brought having big plans for him only to eff him up for 2 seasons…
I don’t care which one of them plays, I just want Arsenal to start being less crap.
Yep, throwing money at the world is the right way to stop being crap.
Saliba to go on loan to Brighton for a year as part of the deal? Give him some EPL experience and give Brighton a ready made replacement for White.
Even better would be if a significant chunk of that £50m turned out to be Saliba shaped.
Huge sums of money spent doesn’t mean huge talent incoming. Look at Ben White or Mustafi as examples
Why you so convinced he’s not any good? I don’t know anything about Ben White really. I’m prepared to give him a season before I make a judgment.
And I’m not sure I said anything about the fact the money correlates to talent, I’m just saying that perhaps some of you should be slightly more optimistic about this.
Personally, I ignore price tags in football, the sums for players have been absurd for years and years.
He is 5’10” which is a midget for CB in EPL. Hope he is really strong, and fast, else he will be targeted by the strikers. At 50mn punds, he cannot afford to make any mistakes.
I just don’t get it, why a centreback? Let’s hope he’s the new Campbell, otherwise this just makes no sense to me.
I’m so, so disappointed for Saliba.
Maybe not now, but he is twice the player of this white guy.
Saliba’s physical stature, his elegance on the ball and statistical profile are all top 1 percentile in Europe. This guy is not a joke. I just do not get it. I thought he would be our van dyke. And if he gets sold this summer without having even kicked a ball it will be truly heartbreaking.
I mean….if you’re so sure about Saliba, why didn’t he get into the France squad? Wouldn’g our “Van Dyke” have gotten into that squad? Why aren’t half a dozen “bigger” UCL clubs hounding Arsenal to buy him if he’s such a revelation? You honestly believe it’d be smart to roll into next year with Holding – so mediocre – as our starting RB with an unproven 20 year old as back up? What happens if Holding gets a 2 month injury? I don’t understand all the tears about Saliba, the coaching staff know more than we ever will. Arteta’s job… Read more »
To be fair, Saliba didn’t play a minute because Mikel didn’t let him. It’s not like there weren’t chances to either. There were games where he played Xhaka and Kolasinac at CB due to the injuries we had. Plus he is still U21, so registration wouldn’t have been an issue in the domestic competitions. If even Jurgen Klopp can forgo experience at CB, what was Arteta’s excuse? ESR before the Chelsea game was also a semi-injury prone midfielder who hadn’t played much in the league either. If Mikel hadn’t been forced to play him, who knows where we would have… Read more »
Preach. This is so accurate.
Saliba doesn’t even get called up to the French U-21 squad in which Guendouzi is the captain! Can we stop pretending he is ready to start for us (that is, if we actually want to challenge for European places).
Bollocks. He never got a chance.
Just curious….Do people think Arteta has some secret vendetta against Saliba? Rather than of course, just thinking he wasn’t ready to start for Arsenal. He’s quite incentivized to play the best possible team at his disposal…
Why is there a cult of Saliba? Our defense was actually quite good last year. I’ll admit that I’ve never seen Saliba play, and of course I’d love him to develop into the best defender in the history of the game, but I have zero understanding of why people think Arteta et al would randomly decline to play a player who would improve the team.
Holding isn’t average
hes worse
Arteta coaching staff are all younger than him . Seem a load of nodding dogs to Arteta . No premier League experience
Why didn’t Saliba get into the France squad?. The same french squad in which PL winner Laporte could not get in?
Saliba just got selected for Olympics. The French rate him ok.
If I could report you for racism, I would, but I don’t see a report post button.
I think he means ‘this White guy’ (Ben White), not a white guy
Being a White is the hardest thing ever!
Fully agree. Crazy club, crazy stuff.
“Maybe not now, but he is twice the player of this white guy”
Why you make up funny?
Lol 😂 funniest post of the day…”truly heartbreaking” if we lose the worlds best defender Saliba, the same dude who is “top 1%” in Europe stats profile…😂😂😂
Seek therapy.
At first I thought this comment was turning a bit racial.
His name is Ben White, you moron
Just so there’s no confusion, I was calling myself a moron
Campbell or not. Personally I’m sick to death of 6ftzero centre backs at our club. Call it Mustafi-itis.
If this guy replaces Saliba before he’s even been given a chance I will kick off.
He’s 5”11..
I’m also annoyed at this signing. We scored the fewest goals in the top half last season, while having the third best defence in the league. I get we are losing Luiz, but for me this 50m needed to be fully invested in the attacking area of the pitch. Especially as we have one of the most coveted CB prospects in the world already on loan in France.
As Andrew says, they better have a bloody good plan.
Funnily enough, for all of Mustafi’s clownish defending, his heading was actually his best quality. He was very elite in that regard. Every season, somehow, he was always around the top for defenders with the most aerial duels won😂😂.
Tommy vermalain size ( spelling ()
I think he is also a midfield signing. His ball control does seem to be good and forward play too, (of course I speak after watching a video collection). We do have Saliba for CB as well, they could both be playing in the same match.
Think the price is the topic of discussion more than the player himself. If it was a double swoop for white and bissouma for 60-70 mil….I don’t think we would have complaint much.
That’s because you would rationalise 40m bissouma and 30m white
But it’s not a double swoop. It’s £50m for one player in a position we shouldn’t be prioritising in this window.
50 for bissomua and give holding / silbra / Mari/ chambers the season playing r CB. We have cover
Exactly… This is such a waste of funds and send the wrong message to other clubs that we have money to spend. Our goals conceded was one of the only positives of last season. This club is making all the wrong moves. You spend this time of sum on a proven attacking midfielder, not England 5th choice CB. My god….. I m not hopeful and Arteta is probably not lasting past Christmas if he sanctioned this
Absolute bollocks. We are about to lose bellerin at RB and this guy is good enough to play either RB or right sided CB in a back 3 and can also do a spin in midfield. He’s Alain an England player, home grown and just coming into his peak. So what the fck are you moaning about? This is not the only deal we’ll do.this summer. Calm down.
My guess is Salibas moving on then 🤔
Only logical explanation. The Saliba singing must rank up there with lucas perez as some of the most pointless money we’ve ever spent.
A lot of questions here. How and when do we sing a song for Saliba when he hasn’t played? And more importantly, why is there money being spent on this singing?
The issue really is we needed to give him a chance to play last year when fans were largely behind a rebuild. Now with Arteta’s job on the line there just seems to be no place for a young player unproven in the PL. a real shame.
And how smart we will look when he’s a world beater at Real Madrid or smth in 3 years.
Saka and ESR are reasons why we aren’t questioning how the club has let down some potentially amazing homegrown players like AMN, Eddie, Willock and Nelson.
These are much talked about much wanted players who won’t even be sold for a fair price (we suck at selling more).
To see Saliba go down the same route is tragic. No 50M purchases can hide the malaise.
And inamoto and park chu yong
Yep, adieu William, nice to have not known you.
Surely this is curtains for Holding, great guy, solid, but his ceiling is too low. This signing takes pressure off Saliba, who will be developed and integrated into a more elite squad.
Attacking stats limited last season because we had to be so defensive minded to make up for lack of defensive talent.
This is a great signing people!!!
We failed last year because we didn’t have another prolific goal scorer.
Don’t forget lack of athleticism too. Our transition play was curtailed to limit the possibility of Xhaka being dispossessed by the opposition.
”into a more elite squad”. We are so far from anything close to elite mate LOL
But that’s the point, right? We need to build an elite squad to compete, that has to be the target, hence clearing out chaff, developing potential (Saka, ESR, Gabs, Tierney) and adding to that with players that have higher ceilings such as White. Saliba could also be that level, he’s just very young. It would be really concerning if we were replacing Mustafi, Luiz etc with more mid-priced middle of the road/ over the hill players that won’t move the club forward in the long run.
We will play roughly 1 game a week next year and likely won’t rotate at all. We now have spent close to 110 m gbp in the last 3 years on white, Gabriel & Saliba at a time when finances are relatively tight and our midfield is a flaming disaster. Saliba now is likely looking at 3 years of effectively never setting foot on the field for us. He will have 2 years left on his contract at year end and given the way he’s been treated under Arteta, it’s virtually unfathomable he would sign a new deal. Saliba is… Read more »
Personally I think that’s conjecture. We don’t know what will happen with Saliba and need to separate that, he wouldn’t be 1st choice this year, and Holding shouldn’t be 1st choice if we aspire to improvement. I think it all seems logical to buy a top level CB if you don’t conflate with our baggage. What it does suggest is that Arteta doesn’t have 4 months to save his job, he’d never get this type of backing if that were true. Despite the rhetoric, there was a clear trajectory of improvement last season and we need more technical and mobile… Read more »
Mate we finished outside of European places after spending all but a few weeks of the season around 10th or lower. We were humbled in Europe by our former manager who we had fired. If Arteta survives another season like this, the club has even more serious issues than we realize.
Pass me the kool aid will you?
“Stop laughing at the back.” Made me laugh… In other news, is this curtains for William Saliba?
Could be the home grown factor come the end of the current window
Saliba would be homegrown too next year, cause he would have been 3 years at the club before 21. So not an argument.
I’m thinking more of the other possible outgoings as well
Yeah, ok. I think we just need to get rid of the Guendos and Torreiras of the world. We will have plenty of HG players with Saka ESR, White, Saliba, Holding, Chambers, etc. And I think that there are some more to come.After this season, HG should not be a huge topic anymore in my world. But let’s see who really leaves.
Saliba on loan in England this season and then and then part of a 5 man rotation next season for our deep Champion’s League run.
I will take that
And he’ll want that, a 3rd season on loan. Think he’ll hate arsenal soon.
Ha fucking ha
White Holding Chambers
The dungeon is getting a makeover
Like a Swedish prison.
Not as annoyed about it as everyone else is tbh
Don’t worry, Arsenal are just warming up. By the end of the window you will want to strangle someone.
Yeah, I don’t really get the hysteria either.
If this is where our transfer activity ends, fair enough, but I don’t see that being the case.
“so we expect a formal announcement won’t be forthcoming until Germany knock out Southgate’s men on Tuesday”
Hahahahaha ….. that was funny ….
…..Welcome
England will win.
Could it be that we actually have a war-chest? I mean 50mil for a young CB surely suggests there’s a bit more in the kitty…
My mate is concerned that Arteta has convinced KSE to only spend money on defenders, the logic being that if we never concede we can never lose. He thinks it’s the kind of thing that only KSE would believe. Imagine that!
I wouldn’t be surprised…
Or if we have decent defenders, the attackers can concentrate more on attacking
Josh Kronke was a college level basketball player , and has been watching arsenal matches at the stadium for ten plus years. We all learned football as children in only. Few years . So why would Josh who was a sportsman only one level below professional. Not be able to pick up and understand football baffles me the logic.
Stan agreed
Some random kids playing college basketball is NOT one level below pro hoops. There are kids playing college hoops that would get slaughtered at their local YMCA gym in a game of pick up. Do you realise how many colleges there are in the USA!?
Are we possibly going to three at the back again? Makes sense since we don’t have many MDs.
Sorry MFs
Was this intentional ? 😂
Lots of MF’s in this club at executive level.
Very true – Edu used to be MF in his playing days😏
You’re one sorry MF.
That might be a sign that we have intentions of spending in other positions as well. Not bad
“once Germany knock out England, made me chuckle 😄
Truly a statement purchase! Looks promising and exciting though. I hope it works out well for us.
I also hope it doesn’t mean Saliba is off. Now, our club have succeeded in making some fans accept Saliba is either not good enough or not ready for us; reminds me of how they made many believe Xhaka would be a better signing than Kante under Wenger with all the talks about how he’d fit in the team and system more than Kante and thus a better signing.
White, Welcome to The Arsenal if the deal goes through.
Great move!! Let’s not worry about the balance of the squad just yet, for all we know he could develop into a right back or mid..looks like he’s versatile because of his ovr profile (talent + physical), not because he does’nt fit to any specific position, very diferent to the utillity player!
It’s a move with good potential. Though our squad is very defence-heavy as it stands. I have a feeling at least one of Chambers, Holding and Saliba will make way if it goes through.
Yeah but this guy has cut it in two ver physical leagues, in two very demanding systems, we have not had strong dynamic right sided defenders for a while. Hard running and defensive cover is the name of the game in the premier league, add a tough energetic midfield engine to the mix and the the squad profile starts looking way better.
Yeah I actually agree with that view.
I’m just skeptical about whether Arteta has the intelligence to coach the new recruits and current players into successfully playing a dynamic style of football.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this apparent chase for Ben White affects the existing central defenders on our payroll.
In the meantime, R.I.P. the away goals rule. I for one enjoyed the excitement and drama that it brought to European games, and am sad to see it go.
Yeah, that’ll be a bit of an adjustment. I guess that the home team in the second leg always benefits in ET.
I have always disliked the away goal rule. There are arguments on both sides for it. For me, outscore your opponent to win, not the silly imaginary away goal.
Is he being signed as RB/RCB/CB? I mean he can play a few positions and coexist with Saliba.
I think Saliba is heading for another loan. Hopefully to a Premier League club so we can keep a better eye on him. That’s what I hope anyways.
Holding or Chambers maybe going instead since White is homegrown.
That’s interesting. If Saliba needs more time to develop maybe he becomes the understudy to White and Holding is moved on. Wouldn’t mind keeping Chambers as he is versatile and could back up whoever our new starting right back is.
Great point about Chambers. I think Holding has peaked, nice player but not taking us to the top 4. Maybe he’s like Xhaka and we need to cut ties to move onwards and upwards.
I expected us to go all out for a proven midfielder and a left back seeing as the areas we are short in quality at the moment. But, here we’re splashing 50m to buy another CB to add to the 5 we already have. What do I know!
This takes alot of mind gymnastics but: If Arteta likes Chambers at RB – does he want White as a RB …. For now it is a conspiracy theory, but remember my words. Haha
It’s a possibility. I hope that isn’t the case though. The Brighton fans haven’t been too impressed when he’s played at RB. Which is understandable because they lost those games.
I forget that Chambers’ natural position is actually RB. He has actually been very prolific there for us. It would be a waste to put him back in the middle in my opinion
Non of them should really play at RB. Chambers went to CB, because he was often roasted on the flank. I’m just saying, because I want to see the great sense behind this signing and still somehow see Saliba not leaving this year. The similarity was also just too funny.
I’m sure he’ll be a good signing but I’m also kind of baffled that this was the first one given how many centre backs we have. I don’t feel we were particularly weak in that area but there you go. I wonder if it means Callum Chambers playing in midfield. Certainly we now need to move one or two on. Like probably everyone under the sun I think midfield really should be the priority though.
This is great buisiness! How often does an English center back of this caliber come along, and how often do we have the opportunity to sign them?
With Gabriel, Saliba and White we’re set.
I believe Saliba will impress in preseason, on both sides of the center back pairing, and we’ll see Holding or Mari head off to Newcastle instead.
I think Arteta will be using Mari a lot more. He is a calm presence.
For sure, both Holding and Mari have that aura of a senior player, and they both seem to be great mentors.
While none of them have the pointed skills needed to be world class.
I really do think Ben White will become world class, since the first time I saw him playing for Leeds, only reenforced by last season with Brighton.
Same goes for Saliba btw. Both in St.Etienne and Nice. Top, top potential!
As soon as he got selected for the England squad, it added 20 million to his price. Mind you, imagine the Gooner reaction if we bought him before that?
I’m totally lost on why we are spending this much money for a CB when we have 5 already and had the 3rd best defence already. We need better ball retention, better creation and better finishing. And if it’s a return to 3 at the back, we have so many players that don’t fit that system. Just don’t get it.
Where do you think every attacking move comes from?
Not all attacking moves come from defence though?
Sometimes the forwards can intercept passes or tackle defenders if they’re pressing well. Likewise, midfielders who win ground and aerial duels in the middle of the pitch can transition play from there.
Definitely a fair point. But being a side that plays from the back, CB’s who can pass/progress play are really important. And White is a big step up from Holding in that regard. I think improving our quality at the back will have a real impact on our attacking capabilities.
And do totally agree we should also invest more in attacking positions (and wisely – not another Pepe or Willian fiasco), and it looks like we are going to. Fingers crossed.
Having midfielders that can pass and progress the ball is more important and more a part of a midfielders job. We lack that greatly at the moment so if we’re spending 50m it should be on that position.
Why are these mutually exclusive? Not all transfers can happen simultaneously, and I think it’s clear they are targeting several midfielders. Just because I’m supportive of improving at the back, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also improve in midfield.
You’re right, maybe this transfer was pushed forward from the end of the window or eaven from next season’s buisness because of england call up and increased intrest from rivals. We read way too much into deals
If this is the case then hopefully he’s a lot better than I think he is.
Proven high quality PL player, helps with homegrown status, young and god forbid, immediately improves the quality of our starting lineup.
I know everyone pretends to be a Saliba expert having never seen him play, but is he really much better than Holding is right now? You may think that professional coaches at Arsenal could make that assessment – and it seems that they have.
White strolls into our starting eleven and can actually help us improve on our league position. More of this is needed, but it’s a great start.
About people judging Saliba, you don’t have to watch his every game. There’s other ways to catch up on his development. And I don’t know, but how many people have actually seen White play consistently? Must be almost every one here, because all I read is how good this guy/great of a signing this is. M
Personally I don’t know this guy well at all.
And Holding is what age?! I’m confident Saliba will be better at 26 then Holding is.
Totally agree that Saliba could be very good in his mid-20s – and hopefully better than Holding. And that’s why we purchased him. Most of the criticism I’ve seen related to this signing revolves around Saliba playing now. We should be improving the quality of our team right now – something playing White does, and something playing Saliba would not do. Given White plays week-in, week-out in the same league as Arsenal, and the English national team, I’m going to wager a bet that more people have seen him play than a lad with less than 40 professional appearances and… Read more »
I have only seen Saliba play live for Nice against Lille. They lost the game and had their right back sent-off. What I took from that game is Saliba is a pretty good dribbler and passer of the ball. If his passing options are marked, he will dribble into unmarked areas of the pitch for a better passing option. However, he doesn’t appear to be a naturally aggressive CB, doesn’t really win the psychological battles. Because of this he can struggle if the opposition CB is the physical type but the positive of this it means he isn’t a rash… Read more »
Here’s an interesting write up about Saliba.
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/william-saliba-at-nice-2020-21-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics
As for White, I just don’t see him as a transformative signing and for that money he needs to be.
Thank you very much for sharing this. What a great read😊
The professional coaches who thought Willian was adding anything of value to the team?
Who thought Xhaka at left back was a masterstroke?
Who were okay with playing a bizarro strikerless formation against Villareal?
Who suggested acquiring Runnarson?
Who got Arsenal Football Club to finish eighth?!?
If our professional coaches are spending £50 million based on how they think Saliva looks NOW, they should go back to coaching and stay the fuck away from transfers.
You’re right – instead of getting better players and improving on 8th place, let’s start “Saliva” because in the future he may be good!
Buddy, Saliba (why saliva? why the insults??) – never got a chance. in 5-10 games he could have been up to speed, I’d be willing to give that to him, he seems a world class player in the making.
Because that’s how “SarcasmB0t” spelt it…
And you may be willing to give him 5-10 games. But the man whose job is on the line (Arteta) clearly didn’t think he was ready. What’s so bad about being patient? He played 18 matches for Nice and didn’t quite light the world on fire. Not to say he’s not an excellent prospect, and I look forward to him playing for Arsenal one day. But if he’s not quite ready now, he’s not ready. What’s so wrong with that?
All I want to say is, that the man whose jos on the line, only given ESR and Saka (who was majorly rotated for first part of the season) a fair chance when everything else already failed. He constantly favored underperforming experienced players and was reluctant to give kids the chance. For me personally, White is not improvement on any CB we have in rotation including Saliba and Mavropanos, and even Chambers, who in my opinion would flourish at CB given injury-free season. I would kinda understand signing Maddison and splashing the cash there (although for me Willock and AMN… Read more »
I really wanted to see Saliba play last season, now I’m more and more wondering if we all fell in the trap of getting too enamoured, too quick, like it’s so luring, you don’t question it once, tall young talented expensive french defender from ligue1, say no freaking more!!…also such a diferent approach in the market as well back then…
This will be a good buy like it or not kudos to Edu and Arteta.Up gunners agunner forever
This will be a very good signing. White is a very good centre-back and is at a good age too.
This is surely the end for Saliba: it looks like Arteta just doesn’t fancy him.
We need to sign a couple of quality full-backs now. Right full-back an absolute priority.
If one of the big clubs (City, United, Liverpool etc) made this deal, we would say that it’s a good deal for them. One of the reasons being we know they would spend in other positions where required and not just do one signing for the window. Hopefully we do the same and also address the other positions where needed, that’s my only concern with this deal.
I still don’t know why we’re signing him. However, I do know that Bielsa of Leeds wanted to sign him for 30m last season after playing for Bielsa in the championship. That tells me there’s a highly rated player there. Maybe a player like White is important to how Arteta wants to play. If he can be our Dias, I will be fine. As an Arsenal fan, I will support him and give him chance. This signing will go a long way in determining Arteta’s future.
Unless we add to midfield and possibly right back and change the way we build attacks, we’re not going to score enough goals and Arteta is going to be gone no matter how well his center backs play.
He can play several positions right? He can play that right back who tucks into midfield and allow the left back to roam forward.
Could this be the ultimate compliment to Pepe form. That he will finally have someone who isn’t so easily passed at right full back. And allow Pepe to do his one man show thing again.
And failing that ping some spectacular balls right to left onto the foot of tierney just like Mustafi during an unlikely spell of form under Mikel
I have no problem with this signing, providing we strengthen the midfield central attack – and strengthen it properly.
We need a top drawer attacking midfielder who can pick defence locks with decent through balls and provide some healthy competition for ESR.
If Arteta and Edu can do that, then they will have both impressed and surprised me.
Over to you, chaps….
Another Willian style signing in the sense that we have a player there and instead of making it work we buy expensive option. Ofc White is younger but still has lower ceiling than Saliba
Best comment here, fully agree.
I’m definitely done with Arsenal, at least until Arteta and Edu leave. I know I’m just one guy and I’ll get bashed here by the ”always positive ”guys, but I don’t understand the club’s thinking (I haven’t for so long), but this is the last straw. We have Saliba, who never got a chance, as opposed to i.e. Mustafi who has shown in 4-5 years he will never be a top CB. We have a tall, athletic, good on the ball player, a modern CB that could flourish as a ball playing defender, with a high ceiling, someone who could… Read more »
I feel your pain, mate.
I think a lot more Arsenal fans share the same opinion; they’re just more guarded about voicing those doubts – especially on here, where it seems anything this side of blind optimism is met with the tedium of forced jollity and the usual cat calls questioning your support for the club.
This is ridiculous…I love when people just complain and then complain that people don’t complain enough. There is literally no one on here that thinks things are great. That doesn’t mean that NOTHING is great and every decision is terrible. Fact is no one really knows how anything will work out ahead of time. Arteta and Edu have been hit and miss. That’s the objective truth and you have to get rid of your confirmation bias that doesn’t allow you to be objective. Kroenke horrible PR and took our class from us…I’m ashamed by them frankly. But I don’t want… Read more »
Mate, I want both Arteta and the Kroenkes out.
Don’t start trying to sell me a line about our poor transfer business acumen – you’re preaching to the converted.
As far as I’m concerned, the whole club is a shit show. But sharing that opinion just invites accusations of being negative for the sake of it – rather than seeing an utter shit show for what it truly is.
As Lennon ( that’s the former Beatle, not the Theo-Lite Spurs Cunt) once said and I quote “Honesty is not always the best policy, but I prefer it…”
I would say rationale statements get just as much slating. But given the clubs perceived position compared to our fairly recent history, opinion will be polarised i guess. I would suggest treating all the football london, caughtoffside, TBR etc. click bait with a healthy bucket load of salt (maybe a truck load). As with statistics, 88.8% of transfer rumours are made up, the other 12.2% are just false. I dont think throwing the baby out with the bath water over our supposed treatment of player x is good for your health, when we dont know what the situation with player… Read more »
I won’t be getting angry, chief, I’ll just be rolling my eyes skywards…..
Probably for the best. Life’s a struggle if you’re constantly angry. Especially if all it takes is a bit of transfer news.
What a condescending post. It’s obviously not about a bit of transfer news and I was very clear in my post, won’t repeat here. I won’t even try to reply or insult you back, act from ego, you go your way if the state of arsenal makes you happy, and I’ll go my way.
I’m genuinely sorry, the last thing I’d want to do is condescend but I honestly thought your post was a bit tongue in cheek.
And to be fair to me, you literally say you wont even try to reply…..in your reply. You’ve gotta admit that’s pretty funny.
Mr Allan had me laughing with his last sentence. SAVAGE 😆😆
I don’t think Saliba is a bad player only Arteta may not like him as Ceballos, Spending 50mil on CB while we don’t have a solid solution our creative midfield can’t do us any good, We still have so many options for CB, this reminds me issue during Kante and Xhaka, at last Kante got more value and effective than Xhaka, It’s up for our coaching staff to update their performance and system not just what they see in other teams or clubs, after all the Man City spend yet and not all works out for them, while we don’t… Read more »
Don’t really get the Agro from fans with this signing. Its a player who enables us to play a high line, something we haven’t had all season. None of our current centre halves possess pace. He’s robust, agile and excellent on the ball. Hopefully he can be a future captain…
Unpopular opinion: our back four with kt-gabriel-holding-bellerin already ready for invincibles yet alone CL.
chambers, saliba backup?! maldini&nesta droolin..
A little bit bizarre. Our defence is already half decent. Many of the goals we shipped last season were us giving the other team a gift due to individual errors.
Simply cut out some of those errors by concentrating better, and moving on some of the error prone players (Xhaka, Luiz etc) and surely we don’t need a new £50 million centre back when we have so many other areas to fix.
They must be expecting a lot of outgoings this window to fund this purchase. We all know this is not the Kroenke’s at work.
jesus christ how many center backs do you need mikel? we have one of the best defensive records and one of the poorest goalscoring records plus a busload of CBs and your marquee signing goes towards a CB?
I can’t see a problem here. He’s British, he’s young, he’s proven, he’s good enough to be an England International, so everything going for the lad. When you’re building/rebuilding it’s must start at the back and that’s what he is doing.
I’m hoping we won’t be selling our English players (Willock, Niles, Chambers,) to buy this English player
Shrews signing. Will fill in at CDM CB or even RB
I echo the response in here of;
It’s a good signing if we are going to spend a lot more money else where
Yep, thus would be a great signing BUT apart from Ben White, why the hell are we yet again going fir 18 year olds from all over the world who may have potential to be great? That will NOT win is anything or get us into the champions league. Do you see chelski, manure or city doing that? Pathetic recruitment policy. We need established top players who can make an immediate impact.
An announcement seems imminent. Would love to see Bissouma join as well
If only we could invest that kind of money in central midfield where we are desperate. Hopefully he can work out, but a very high fee for a short central defender.
I have a feeling this will be another Kolo Toure signing apart from the fees, that is.
He’ll end up in midfield.
One of the things no one appears to talk about in regards of signings is player character.
I don’t know anything about Ben White, i’ve always given players a fair crack of the whip when we’ve signed them, but i have the feeling one of the reasons in targeting him is what he might bring to the club culture.
Does anyone know what type of leadership qualities he has or how consistent a player he is?
One of the reasons you buy from within the Premier League is because you know they already can perform at the required level.
I do not see the point in spending 50 million on a position that is not an immediate problem area. Given the fact that Arsenal can probably only make 1 50 mil purchase it should be for a midfielder. In fact it should be to replace Xhaka if we are selling him. We need more goals/ assists from midfield, better technical quality in midfield, better mobility in midfield. Essentially we need a top class midfielder. Improving midfield is the lowest hanging fruit but it won’t come cheap.
Idiotic transfer if true.
Some good stats references, below: he’s essentially Rob Holding.
Ignoring the pieces we need – midfield.
I think Blogs was right: this is MA and Edu CYA move: buy a defender, and avoid getting fired.
Christt on a bike: Arsenal needs creativity, not another bloody centerback.
This is clusterfuck central.
I don’t hate this transfer, but that is on the understanding there will be more money coming. If there’s not then this is a waste of the funds as we need midfielder and RB, (lb cover too).
Not a fan of Özil since after his third season with us but the man had a point when he asked the owners for explanation of player pay cuts and how that money was going to be used … he was singled – and left out — and right after the mascot and staff were let go … A few months later we’re spending a shit load of money on a promising defender … oh how I love the Kroenkes, Edu and all who’re involved in this shitshow … Just get out of the club, all of you.
Top post well said.
I’ve been
smashing my head against a fucking brick wallsaying this for ages.Need: Left back
Going big for RB who can fill RCB or RCDM.