Ben White | Arsenal

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What would people consider a fair price for White?

I’m a big fan of him and think he’ll make an excellent signing in the long-term but £50 million is exorbitant, especially considering the value for money elsewhere in Europe atm.
£35mill max!! Hes not even a starter for England, i dont know how Arsenal can justify paying that much for him. I honestly dont think hes much better than Michael Keane.
 

RyRoc

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£20m. If hes a comparable player but not english and signed from abroad thats what he costs. You didnt see chelsea paying 50 for gary cahill back in the day. No one ever wanted Mathew Upson off Birmingham and he actually used to get in the England team.

If Arsenal want him at any cost a bit like we did with Maguire then fair play but they have much bigger issues in their team and thats probably a sizeable amount of their budget spent. It doesnt make much sense to me
Brighton rejected £25 million from Leeds last summer , his price was never going to be lower after a season in the Premier League and England call up not to mention they protected his value by getting him to sign a new deal.
 

SirReginald

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He could be a decent purchase if he develops further but ouch, that price tag.. this could be up there with Pepe and Kepa. In a COVID market where clubs lost a lot of money last year that could have been invested more wisely.
 

unplayable

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Brighton rejected £25 million from Leeds last summer , his price was never going to be lower after a season in the Premier League and England call up not to mention they protected his value by getting him to sign a new deal.
You walk away if a player has an unrealistic pricetag. It's not like there are no alteratives to him.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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Good signing. Very similar to John Stones, in my opinion, who funnily enough, went for around 50M, too.

Front foot defender, aggressive, fast and good on the ball. Typical modern-day defender, if you like.

I just think he'd need a dominant commanding centre back next to him, i.e. Van Dijk, Dias, Maguire, etc. Have Arsenal got that? Not sure they have.
 

bond19821982

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Good signing. Bit expensive but that's what you pay for English players. Surprisingly, Arsenal is also now taking our route of signing PL players who has proved their worth.
 

bond19821982

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£35mill max!! Hes not even a starter for England, i dont know how Arsenal can justify paying that much for him. I honestly dont think hes much better than Michael Keane.
He isn't better than Keane now but he would be a much better player in couple of years. Has huge potential.
 

Jezpeza

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Brighton rejected £25 million from Leeds last summer , his price was never going to be lower after a season in the Premier League and England call up not to mention they protected his value by getting him to sign a new deal.
yes but leeds bid was fair and they waled away from any farce bidding. Brighton wanted to inflate his price and arsenal are the chumps who took the bait
 

FrankDrebin

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He'll be a mainstay in their defence for quite a while so, if all goes to plan and he continues to improve, its a good deal.

But, emphasis on White continuing to improve. Needs to show the right character and as we know Arsenal over these years is quite a toxic environment once things go slightly bad.
 

AltiUn

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He isn't better than Keane now but he would be a much better player in couple of years. Has huge potential.
Indeed, they're paying for the player they think he will become rather than the one he is now. Although apparently Brighton have snuck in a sell on clause too which is hilarious, they've fleeced Arsenal, not to say it won't turn out to be a good deal for Arsenal eventually.
 

meamth

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What is so weird about that price tag?

That's normal for premier league level defender with high potential.
 

FrankDrebin

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Does he have huge potential ? Im not quite sure he does but I do see a good player in him but just not a great player.

He reminds me of Cahill, who was severely underrated to some degree.
 

AshRK

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Arsenal for all the talk of acting as a poor club always end up spending decent amount. 72 m on pepe, 45 m on partey, 30m on saliba, 26m on gabriel, 50m now on white. Surely arteta must deliver.
 

bond19821982

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Indeed, they're paying for the player they think he will become rather than the one he is now. Although apparently Brighton have snuck in a sell on clause too which is hilarious, they've fleeced Arsenal, not to say it won't turn out to be a good deal for Arsenal eventually.
My only issue is he shouldn't have chosen Arsenal. Should have stayed with BHA for one more year and see what his options are ,in couple of years. Arsenal isnt getting Europe anytime soon and so what difference would it have made to stay at BHA?

In 1 - 2 years, Chelsea, City , Liverpool and even us could be looking for a central defender. He just missed the boat.
 
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So many posts saying he's had an extra season of PL and been called up be England so £25m (Leeds offer) to £50m seems logical.

No it doesn't.

It's one extra season where he looked ok (nothing else) for Brighton and wasn't even their best CH, some would say even 2nd best CH.

Also, getting picked by Southgate doesn't add value. That's just Southgate making flavour of the month call ups. Would anyone pay £50m for Coady? Or Mings for that matter who I don't particularly rate as top but is easily better than White.

£20m-£30m is an ok price for an ok player but glad to see Arsenal being Arsenal.
 

Jezpeza

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So many posts saying he's had an extra season of PL and been called up be England so £25m (Leeds offer) to £50m seems logical.

No it doesn't.

It's one extra season where he looked ok (nothing else) for Brighton and wasn't even their best CH, some would say even 2nd best CH.

Also, getting picked by Southgate doesn't add value. That's just Southgate making flavour of the month call ups. Would anyone pay £50m for Coady? Or Mings for that matter who I don't particularly rate as top but is easily better than White.

£20m-£30m is an ok price for an ok player but glad to see Arsenal being Arsenal.
my thoughts. Hes a decent ball playing defender. Weak on the defending front. Poor aerially which was covered by the others in the brighton back 3. Why not keep Saliba in the team? Dont see that as a good £50m investment when theres so many other holes in the team and they dont exactly have a huge budget. They need two class centre midfielders and a striker to think about denting the top 4.
 

CM10

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What is so weird about that price tag?

That's normal for premier league level defender with high potential.
White's had one season in the Premier League where most of his minutes have come as a midfielder or part of a back three. That pretty much resembles a punt for Arsenal who will presumably want him playing in a 4, and you would expect that to be reflected in the fee.

Brighton didn't consider him a first choice defender either and used him as more of a utility man - obvious caveat of him being young but if you're paying £50m for a defender who is being moved around to facilitate Dunk and Webster (and sometimes Burn) that's a bit of a worry.

I don't think Arsenal would've been able to get him any cheaper but they are overpaying by £15-20m for what they're getting. For that money they should probably look elsewhere or even give their own £30m asset in Saliba a go.
 

Crimson King

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Does he have huge potential ? Im not quite sure he does but I do see a good player in him but just not a great player.

He reminds me of Cahill, who was severely underrated to some degree.
I wouldn't say it's huge, no. He might surprise us all and suddenly jump up a couple of gears, but it would be very surprising.
 

Sandikan

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Arsenal for all the talk of acting as a poor club always end up spending decent amount. 72 m on pepe, 45 m on partey, 30m on saliba, 26m on gabriel, 50m now on white. Surely arteta must deliver.
The Saliba one was bizarre. Especially as they're shipping him out on loan for a second season in a row now.

But 50m for Ben White is unbelievable.
 

meamth

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White's had one season in the Premier League where most of his minutes have come as a midfielder or part of a back three. That pretty much resembles a punt for Arsenal who will presumably want him playing in a 4, and you would expect that to be reflected in the fee.

Brighton didn't consider him a first choice defender either and used him as more of a utility man - obvious caveat of him being young but if you're paying £50m for a defender who is being moved around to facilitate Dunk and Webster (and sometimes Burn) that's a bit of a worry.

I don't think Arsenal would've been able to get him any cheaper but they are overpaying by £15-20m for what they're getting. For that money they should probably look elsewhere or even give their own £30m asset in Saliba a go.
Apologize for the previous post then.

Now we know why Arsenal is the biggest banter club in world football.
 

RyRoc

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I think he’s being underrated a bit in this thread - his ball playing potential and bringing the ball out from the back is very good, his defending needs improvement for sure but is that not the same for most 23 year olds? On the whole I think it’s a good signing but as others have mentioned will need far more than just him.
 

AshRK

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The Saliba one was bizarre. Especially as they're shipping him out on loan for a second season in a row now.

But 50m for Ben White is unbelievable.
Arteta has spent over 100 million on centre back, following pep's ideology
 

bond19821982

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Thats not even saying much tbh, how high do you think his ceiling is? I don’t see him being Terry/Vidic levels
He isn't but neither is Maguire for whom we paid 80m. Fact is , all English players are overpriced. So price isn't really a barometer when it comes to talented English players.
 

sun_tzu

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The Saliba one was bizarre. Especially as they're shipping him out on loan for a second season in a row now.

But 50m for Ben White is unbelievable.
Ref saliba I think both his parents died just around the time he moved to arsenal so I cam certainly imagine that moving to a new country etc just happened at the wrong time for him so the loans perhaps make more sense in that context

50m for white in the current economic climate does seem high though
 

Sandikan

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Ref saliba I think both his parents died just around the time he moved to arsenal so I cam certainly imagine that moving to a new country etc just happened at the wrong time for him so the loans perhaps make more sense in that context

50m for white in the current economic climate does seem high though
Bad timing indeed for Saliba, and we do forget players are humans too sometimes, when we all think nothing of players moving to different countries, like it's nothing.
When most of us wouldn't dream of moving an hour or so away in our own country.

Saliba stung me though, as he looked a great fantasy footy attribute, much better than Holding, who was rumoured to be up for loan.
Then watched Saliba drop 0.3m value in 5 or so weeks, while Holding started well.
 

choccy77

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Even Arsenal can get a deal done quicker than United.

Just Embarrassing
 

Ekeke

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Expensive. Has potential but if he's ever going to look like a £50 million CB I feel like it would take 2 or 3 seasons of progression