According to David Ornstein, Arsenal have had a bid for Brighton’s Ben White accepted.
🚨 Arsenal have struck an agreement in principle to sign England centre-back Ben White from Brighton. Deal for 23yo subject to medical & will take some time to be completed. #BHAFC always wanted guaranteed £50m @TheAthleticUK 1st reported @TomBarclay_ #AFC https://t.co/hZzxa6rRJu
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) July 16, 2021
The 23 year old has been linked with the Gunners over the last few weeks, but because of his involvement with England during Euro 2020, it’s taken longer than normal to finalise the transfer.
Arseblog News understands that the agreement with the player has been complete for some time – with the blessing of Brighton – but the deal between the clubs has taken longer to come to.
However, it now seems that side of things has been sorted out, and the defender will join the Gunners on a five year deal with a fee believed to be £50m.
Having already signed Nuno Tavares to deputise Kieran Tierney, and with Albert Sambi Lokongo set to be confirmed to add midfield depth, White will arrive as a major part of the first team for the new season.
Arsenal continue to seek another midfield player, with continued interest in Manuel Locatelli, as well as a creative attacking midfielder to take some of the burden off Emile Smith Rowe.
Very Good News
i agree. I think a lot of the apprehension with white is because people think his massive transfer fee might be at the expense of more-needed midfield signings, which is completely warranted and I hope is not the case. We DO need an improvement at RCB and a ball-playing, quick defender could change the way we play massively. 50m is a huge amount of money, but I think we should look at it as: the club want Ben white, they think he’s what we need and think he’ll change our game for the better, that fact would be true whether… Read more »
If he does the job I have no problem with the money spent on him. I really hope he works out for us. It would be too much to bare if he didn’t.
Yeah in the last few years we have spent big money on players that for multiple reasons haven’t worked out as well as we hoped. Everything crossed that Ben White won’t be another addition to that motley crew!
The fact remains we’re desperately in need of midfield and attacking midfield options AND we just loaned out (for the 3rd time) a highly touted, tall, fast, ball playing RCB whose has three successful ligue 1 seasons under his and cost 3/5 of White’s price AND our defense was as good as it’s been in the last decade, while we barely look like we can muster a goal in any given game. White might be a good player and a success, but the deal is an overpay and looks questionable for so many reasons and the kid is under MASSIVE… Read more »
Agreed. We overlook the fact that out of the 9 signings that have cost the club above £30 million, only 3 of them even put in performances worthy of their transfer fee. These were Sanchez, Aubameyang and Özil. The rest simply could not handle the pressure of the huge price tags. Our best transfers in the last six years have usually been the players who didn’t have much pressure to perform. A £50 million signing is what proven coaches like Klopp, Simeone and Conte buy if they think it gives them that extra level after a strong campaign. It is… Read more »
Klopp – Keita
Simeone – Lemar
Conte – Drinkwater
They’ve all bought duds too.
Indeed. My point is that those teams could afford to take those gambles because they had strong seasons before and were looking for squad depth Liverpool finished in the top 4 for the 2nd consecutive year and reached a Champions League final. Keita was an extra luxury in a midfield that already had Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Henderson, Milner and Ox. Atletico finished 2nd in La Liga above Real Madrid. They had also won the Europa League the season before Lemar signed. They already had Vitolo, Yannick Ferreira, Correa and Vietto as wingers. Chelsea had won the title under Conte the previous… Read more »
Ozil worthy of his transfer fee? Really?
I mean…I personally think so. It may have ended on a low but I think he had individual seasons that were worthy of the £42.5m price tag.
At least, consider the stature of player we bought for that amount. Attacking midfielders like Kaka, Zidane and Figo had already gone for fees higher than that before him. Then look at the fees that Havertz, Coutinho and De Bruyne went for after Özil’s transfer.
Oh give up FFS mate.
Ozil was the catalyst to kickstart a club that had hitherto won fuck all in the previous nine years. Three FA Cups 2014, 2015 and 2017 in four seasons and but for a dodgy central defence we would have won the EPL in 2016.
Some of the football we played with him in the side was some of the best football ever seen from Arsenal Football Club.
Take your hate and ignorance elsewhere.
So many comments on here writing him off before he’s even worn the shirt. Embarrassing fans.
Never wrote him off at all, and all reports are he’s a good player. But he’s now under massive big singing pressure and we have much more pressing areas of concern. Nonetheless here comes Ben White, and I’ll get behind him, but it’s hardly a deal you’d describe as taking advantage of the market and it makes the Saliba deal look like nothing but a complete disaster. I mean sure, if you need to twist my words to comfort yourself about how great we are in the market then go for it.
He’d better be awesome for £50m….
Homegrown.
Watching rangers highlights we could do with someone powerful in the air to defend set pieces, If 6 ft Ben can do that fantastic.
That seems as important to me , as tidy passing into midfield which Keown, Adams could do but you : d never say in the modern mode good on the ball
Good luck Ben , my Leeds utd friend says your a great player
You’ll have to look elsewhere for that…
Successful aerial duels per 90 minutes (success rate)
Konstantinos Mavropanos – 2.8 (70%)
Gabriel – 2.6 (59%)
Pablo Mari – 2.6 (54.1%)
Rob Holding – 2.5 (54.3%)
Calum Chambers – 2.4 (53.3%)
William Saliba – 1.9 (61.2%)
Ben White – 1.4 (50%)
I’m sure it has all been analysed to death but according to the analysis below he really doesn’t look like a massive improvement. There’s different playing styles and defensive set-ups and amounts of room for improvement etc so you can make of these stats what you like
https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/comparing-ben-whites-2020-21-stats-to-arsenals-current-centre-backs/
The Club thought Ozil was what was needed….
Really weird one for me. I’m a bit apprehensive about that amount of money and feel it could be better invested. But when Chelsea were circling I shat my pants.
Ah, being a football fan. Makes almost no sense.
If Chelsea had any genuine interest they’d have put in an offer.
Yeah possibly. There does often seem to be last minute opposing interest. We had it with Gabriel and United. Maybe it’s leverage for the selling club to push for the fee they want.
I can’t help but feel that injury to Trent Alexander Arnold has cost us another £10-15m. One minute we are tracking a player that has gone slightly under the radar and the next we are trying to sign an England international.
Arteta must’ve been pissed when he saw Ben’s name in the revised squad.
31 likes, 13 dislikes.. I don’t know if its just me, but I like symmetry and dare not mess it up 😅
Superb! He’s a Rolls Royce and apparently Chelski were sniffing around…
Ben White is magic, he wears a magic hat, and when he saw the Emirates, he said I fancy that.
He didn’t sign for Tottenham, or Chelsea they are shite, he signed for the Arsenal cause he’s fucking dynamite!
Then Chelsea should have spaffed £50m on the player.
50 million is a lot of money for a defender. I hope he’s worth it.
Oh, and welcome to the club, Ben!
You’ve probably never heard of Van Dyik to Liverpool 😁
Twatsloch has certainly heard of Van Dijk. Unfortunately, like all of us, he has also suffered Mustafi, our most expensive defensive signing till date. The apprehension isn’t entirely unwarranted.
This is the signing that Edu/Arteta will be judged on; a 1st team upgrade, premier league experienced, England squad, some pre-season training…. He has got to hit the ground running!
Good. I hope it works out.
Perplexed with the transfer fee, then did a quick comparison with Manc City’s transfers for defenders from transfer market:
Aymeric Laporte – €65m (24yo)
John Stones – €55m (23yo)
Benjamin Mendy – €57.5m (23yo)
Kyle Walker – €52.7m (27yo)
It’s more or less the avg transfer fee, but it still feels like a gamble. Hopefully Edu and Arteta have done their homework.
I think all the above players had a lot more appearances under their belt than Ben White. Haven’t looked at stats though so happy to be proved wrong.
Or you could look at transfer fees paid by a club like Leicester. I’m sure Soyuncu and Fofana combined cost less than any of those City defenders.
Man City have almost infinite funds compared to almost every other club. You can’t really use them as an example for the going rate these days.
I think it’s wrong to compare us to Leicester, they can get away with mistakes better than we can. As a fanbase I think we suffer from survivorship bias. For every Maddison there’s a Praet, for every Barnes, there’s a Musa.
It’s ok for Leicester to take those risks because finishing outside the CL places isn’t a disaster for them. And teams with well established top squads can also make one or two of these as well, safe in the knowledge that their best players will see them over the line if the new signing can’t.
Leicester have obviously done very well with their resources, but they are a very different club than Arsenal have aspired to be. After their extraordinary title, they could not keep their best player–Kante–at all, they almost Vardy (to us) and their second best player–Mahrez–left as soon as he could. They have continued to sell their best players–not simply good academy products like Willock or Maitland-Niles–but key members of their first team like Maguire and Chilwell. They have reinvested that money well, but it is a very different model of success than any of the “big” clubs.
I agree with that in the main, my problem is that I feel too many people on here get caught up in Leicester’s transfer successes, and completely ignore their failures. We’ve made plenty of “Leicester” type signings, our record is mixed to say the least. Tavares and Lokonga could also be called “Leicester” like signings. But we’re going to need more than that to get where we want to go. City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea will all be gunning for the title this season, we’ll probably need to be aiming for the title ourselves to have a realistic chance of… Read more »
Kroenke has funds like City and PSG.
He just can’t be fucked.
It’s an inflated market, and for some reason people don’t think that applies to smaller clubs. Brighton didn’t want to let him go, they would only accept a massive fee, and fair enough. Arsenal wanted him, decided he was worth the money and made the move. Also fair enough. We’ve all seen how much stability an excellent defensive signing can bring – and Ben White’s ball playing skills will hopefully help cure our uncertain playing out from the back. A team that consistently struggles creatively could benefit hugely from a creative outlet in the backline. Artetas first choice CB was… Read more »
Yet, Varane is about the same price, and Aouar is heavily discounted in an inflated market?
It’s simply the homegrown tax. Has anyone told senor Borgais that Brighton can be quite similar to Brazil sometimes? There’s a deal to be done here.
Varane is going for at least 40m when he has just one year left on his contract, and aouar is cheap bc he had a shite season. but yeah Ben white has a massive English tax on him, but they all do. if he succeeds nobody thinks twice about the price tag.
Varane is also 28. He belongs in a club that is trying to win the league right now, not building for the future.
Varane isn’t the same price. Javjngbtk assume a lot here, but if we say Ben White is £50m, 5 Yr contract £100k/wk, does badly but we manage contract(!) and is sold for £20m, that’s £55m. If Varane costs £50m, 5yr contract at £200k/wk, has no value at end given age, that’s £100m, so conservatively Varane is about twice the cost.
I’m not sure comparisons with City represent the going rate. The great thing about City is that they can keep spending those amounts until they get it right. Not sure we have that luxury.
And the thing about City spending those amounts until they get it right is that it continues to inflate the market.
PSG and Chelsea have contributed to that too.
But, as far as we’re concerned, that’s beside the point. Kroenke has got the money but refuses to go the extra mile, because he has zero ambition for this club.
Well done Brighton. Great bit of business for them and he wasn’t even their best defender.
Well he just won their fan’s player of the season ahead of Bissouma who pretty much everyone regards as their star player. And the previous year made the championship team of the season at centre half at the age of 21. But sure, we should have gone for Lewis Dunk instead, right?
Apparently Lewis Dunk is still waiting for his Chelsea Medical to be finalized 😂
Every Brighton fan on the internet has said that Leeds United fans invaded their fan poll and pushed Ben White to number 1.
Heck, go on Brighton’s Twitter and look at the award announcement post. Pretty sure most of the Albion supporters were confused.
Are we loaning him straight back to Brighton or…?
I hope this doesn’t negatively impact Brighton too much as I have a tenner on Potter for next England boss
I wouldn’t worry about that, Middlesbrough were relegated when Southgate was their manager.
I think this is really good. Yes, there is always uncertainty and risk, but to sign the (one of?) the most promising Centre backs at a perfect age shows foresight and ambition, as well as encouraging that he wanted to come in what is for him an important step in his career. The cost is what it is for this type of transfer.
What a waste of money. Who’s the moron who wasted £30m for Saliba and then loan him out for 3 years in a row? The same moron who gave the green light to get Willian on a fat 3 year contract. That £50m could have been better spent on an atk midfielder or a right back ffs
Well one of the Morons was on a yacht with Edu the other day.
There’s yer problem…
What are Arsenal scouts doing with themselves?
Are you telling me there’s no quality defenders in world football that could come in for half the price of Ben White. I miss the days when we found an unknown Kolo Toure, Freddie Ljundberg or Patrick Vieira, for a few hundred thousand, and turned them into world stars.
Well I think we fired them all…it’s hard to know whether White was someone the previous scouting department looked at, but you’d have thought if we had we’d have gone in for him last year (when the only competition was from Leeds), and not waited until he was a £50m international.
What arsenal scouts?
Bring back Francis Cagigao.
Is there any chance that any player in the first division of any European league, or the second division of the top leagues, will not be well-known to every club in Europe? With their stats fed into comparative analytics, and their relative prices compared? Can the brilliant steal still happen (Kante to Leicester, for example)? Far less often.
Erm……they were all made redundant…?
What scouts…..?!! 🤣
The one thing that isn’t debatable is that at least it demonstrates we have ambition, which other potential players coming to the club might’ve doubted
I’m not really getting too excited. We are breaking our record paid for a defender. And for £50mil , it just seems alot for a player who is uncapped and have no European experience. Seems to be paying premium due to being an English player. The last time we broke our record for a defender , we got a experience int cap CB, and hits off well with Kos … and then we all knew what happen after. Not that I’m jinxing it, but just feel we can have better use of the 50mil, when we are quite stock on… Read more »
Agreed. This reminds me of when City first came into money but big players didn’t want to go there so they overpaid for B-graders. Konate to Liverpool for 36mil is a case in point compared to White. Ironically he’s been playing for a Champions League team since he was 18.
Or Konate is an unproven PL gamble with a terrible and persistent injury record. Ben White has played more games since Christmas than Konate has played in past two seasons.
Exciting signing that will enable the attack more than most seem to appreciate.
Well anyone who hasn’t played in the PL is “an unproven PL gamble” right? Even Messi etc. the question really is whether the money was better spent elsewhere given we already had a similar profile player on the books (Saliba).
Well Saliba….he’s out on loan again…..what a way to do business.
The magic “Premier League proven” formula😎. The same formula that saw the transfer of flops like Torres, Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Willian, Ross Barkley, Danny Drinkwater (injury prone), Silvestre, Benteke, Jeffers, Ben Foster and Craig Bellamy just to name a few.
Some of the best players in the league of recent seasons had little or no Prem experience. I think an intra-league transfer is always just as risky as an inter-league transfer. The player’s chemistry with his teammates and manager matters more IMO.
He has better ball carrying abilities than Holding but in case you didn’t know, Holding successfully completed significantly more long range passes than White despite playing 6 less games.
So who’s in the departure lounge now?
Xhaka seems imminent. Unfortunately, in spite of some hints earlier, Willian will be staying so let’s not get our hopes up there. What about Hector? It’s awfully quiet around Kolasinac. Elneny? Willock and AMN?
Any word on a back up keeper?
Willock is apparently going to Newcastle on loan with an option/obligation to buy. Last I saw Kola’s contract was going to be terminated. Hector wants to leave with Inter looking like a possible destination, but they only want a loan which we’re not interested in, so it’ll be interesting to see how that pans out since he doesn’t seem to have many other suitors. As for the other 2, yeah it’s been very quiet, There were murmurs about Besiktas taking Elneny back, but I reckon he’ll probably stick around as a squad player. As for AMN who knows? As for… Read more »
I love a good optional obligation to buy clause…
Thank you!
Any other players were trying to offload? There’s so many I forget. There’s Nketiah as well of course. And the rumours around Lacazette.
Xhaka ‘imminent’…..?!!
Tick tock tick tock…..no sale.
Roma are probably developing a classic case of Buyer’s Remorse – and, that being the case, then let’s face it, who could blame them?
I want this to be a great signing. The outlay is huge for a club without European football.
The reality is that Ben White alone does not turn Arsenal into a top 4 club; but it is a step in the right direction.
A keeper, creative midfielder, and replacements for Xhaka and Bellerin is the minimum requirement for the team.
A striker could be added to that list if Laca moves on.
If those are done, Arsenal might just pull a surprise.
Still a bit concerned about his lack of height in the Premier League, but happy to get behind a new Arsenal signing.
Desperately hoping this doesn’t impact on our central midfield problem. You’d have thought that more resources would have been put there.
Ben White’s height is an enigma. His height has ranged from 5’8″ to 6’2″ according to multiple websites. I’ve seen the England EURO 2020 squad picture and he appears to be level with John Stones.
I personally think he’s the same height as Xhaka and Willock which is >/= 6’1″
Ben looks taller than Vemaelen
£50m is a lot to shell out for a defender but having homegrown status really commands a premium. Just hope White is worth it.
Not when Arsenal sell!
We got good money for Oxlade Chamberlain and Iwobi. Those are the two I can remember. The rest has been at a pittance.
And how little value for money Ox turned out to be for Liverpool. Ha!
Of course. We offer bargain bin prices instead.
Interesting analysis of White on skysport. Could bring the end of the infamous horseshoe passing pattern.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12350025/ben-white-to-arsenal-brighton-defender-can-add-a-new-dimension-for-mikel-artetas-side
Well, if he is half as good as this makes him sound, he can be a transformative signing.
He’s no right back with 9% crossing accuracy (Chambers was 18% for comparison), Holding has better defensive stats and better long passing. I don’t see White revolutionising our play and for that money he should. Here’s hoping he does.
LANS
Arteta and Edu’s future at the club are significantly riding on this transfer being a success.
We certainly needed to replace David Luiz, but £50 million is some gamble.
Great now let’s get locatelli over the line. Maybe offer them Torreira who is highly respected in Italy.
Now that we’ve finally signed Ben White where are we loaning to?
Back to Brighton for a year first. There’s a range of mediocre clubs to choose from come the following years.
Why is he better than Saliba?
Because the coach prefers one over the other. No other justifiable reason really. We’ve seen it happen with Luke Shaw v Ashley Young, Lukaku v Diego Costa, Salah v Pedro, Origi v Firmino etc. All equally capable players cast aside for another player the manager preferred.
Because he cost 22 million pounds more.
A good signing if there’s not a last minute hiccup. I do think £50 million is a lot for someone who’s just been playing centre back in a relegation threatened team, but if we see an improved position at the end of the season I’m not complaining.
Like many others, I just hope this is not at the expense of a midfield signing that would really help transform our fortunes at both ends.
Let’s get this one over the line – if only too stop those Blue-Is-The-Colour cunts from buying everyone.
*to
Brighton have also signed a keeper from Ajax, so they may not want to sell Onana anymore.
And Mat Ryan has gone to Sociedad.
Is spending £20 million on Johnstone or Ramsdale good business. Or will we just gamble with Okwonko and Hein as our #2 and #3 this season. Runarsson not being used in pre-season friendlies probably signals his end.
Great! Now we can send him off like Saliba and deal with a patchy defense for the rest of the season.
Weird isn’t it: Arteta wants Saliba to ‘toughen up’ and so sends him to one of the slowest softest leagues in Europe.
Saliba would do better in the Championship, not strolling around a low grade league.
Arsenal are buying like mugs. 50m?
We look more and more mid table these days. Other additions also look like Also rans (hopefully surprise package but most likely not)
Put a couple of clowns in charge that will offer zero challenge to the owners and this is what you are getting.
Many delusional people here prefer to fantisize otherwise but we will be no where near races.
Not worth watching anymore.
This will likely impact further business.
We needed to spread out on spend.
Too many people deluded.
We are run by people who don’t know better, over spend on players. Likely we will also sell of our better assets (for less)
Idiotic.
Only thing I’d like to see more of (in this new age bosman time) is 5 years +1, and hell +1 more…
That way the clubs have some more protection, and the cancerous agents can suck it.
I like it. Until we get the back line settled we are decidedly unsettled. Hopefully White and Gabriel will hold down the CB positions for years. Bring on Saka, ESR, a confident Pepe, Martinelli and a few new faces and let’s battle.
Fuck this. Saliba’s place is taken then for years to come, can’t see him playing for us regularly then. Fuck arteta and edu.
That’s £50m pi55ed away…£50m spent that now can’t be spent on signings in more important areas.
Arsenal should be able to put up at least £100m – £150m each transfer window. I say SHOULD, but as we all know, Kroenke can’t be bothered to go toe to toe with Chelsea and Man City, despite having the money available.
In other words, while we still have Kroenke at the helm, then Chelsea, City, Liverpool, United, Tottenham, Villa et all have nothing to fear about top four when it comes to us.