[Football] Arsenal’s Ben White

[GT49er]

Nonsense. Sorry did someone force Ben at gunpoint to sign a new 4 year deal?

Gunpoint? No, stupid idea. More like, "We are not selling you to Leeds, you are staying here for the next year or two. Would you like to double your salary while you're here or stick with what you're getting? - and don't put anything stupid on Facebook or Tw@tter about wishing we'd let you go to Leeds."

 

[GloryDays]

Disappointing. Feel a bit short changed. £50m for any player isn't money to turn your nose up to but given the potential of Potterball, with this group of players...just feel like one more season with Biss, White, Lamp, Dunk, etc, and we could have really seen what we were about. Just feels like we never got out of 2nd gear last season. Losing him to Arsenal too just feels so underwhelming. Not even a team in europe. C'est la vie.

Hopefully this is the only disruption this summer but any more big departures and we may well have to brace for a rebuild and season of transition when really we should have been looking to start the season with a familiar group of players and hit the ground running.

 

[GT49er]

Don’t think that’s correct. Fulham exercised their option to sign him - don’t think they were obliged to make it permanent.

I'm pretty sure they were - and they weren't happy they'd signed on the dotted line agreeing to it.

 

[Albion Dan]

From Argus latest sounds like we’re playing hard ball. Good. Absolutely no need to rush into any business and the worst thing for our own targets is other clubs knowing we’ve got a wind fall in the bank.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Picked up after checking a few hours ago.

60 comments since covering the Leeds angle and no update on the actual transfer to Arsenal

Brilliant


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, and to make matters worse the Leeds stuff is all just a fairy tale….

 

[GT49er]

It really, really wasn't.

If he had wanted to go, the club would have let him.

If Leeds had offered enough, he'd have been gone. They didn't. That's history.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Disappointing. Feel a bit short changed. £50m for any player isn't money to turn your nose up to but given the potential of Potterball, with this group of players...just feel like one more season with Biss, White, Lamp, Dunk, etc, and we could have really seen what we were about. Just feels like we never got out of 2nd gear last season. Losing him to Arsenal too just feels so underwhelming. Not even a team in europe. C'est la vie.

Hopefully this is the only disruption this summer but any more big departures and we may well have to brace for a rebuild and season of transition when really we should have been looking to start the season with a familiar group of players and hit the ground running.

Do you know something we don’t ?

 

[clapham_gull]

Seems unlikely papers would make up 'has agreed personal terms'. Will happen. Good luck Ben. Not the move id make but its your career. Wish you all the success in the future.

They may not make things up but clearly talk to people who do all the time, especially agents. With notable exceptions, over time football journalism has stopped being as such and morphed into gossip column.

Even the BBC has a page dedicated to "football gossip" where they list the back page stories from the newspapers. Those headlines are often contradictory.

As long as they aren't defamatory it fills a void.

 

[clapham_gull]

If Leeds had offered enough, he'd have been gone. They didn't. That's history.

I doubt that actually, not to a newly promoted club.

 

[GT49er]

In my opinion it was blindingly obvious at the time. I didn't say it was reported so calm down. The guy had never played for us so there was no tie to us. Had an amazing season at Leeds and signed a deal when it was clear the Leeds deal wasn't going to happen. If I was him I'd have also wanted to join a club who I had an amazing amazing season playing for and guaranteed prem football instead of.coming back to a team of.players I never played with.

We would all love to believe clubs bid and then speak to players when the offer is accepted but that just isn't reality. If you are a club you want to know from the players representative before you start going into bidding that the player has an interest otherwise its a big waste of time and causes embarrassment. White had an amazing season at Leeds, clearly had made friends and in my view would have liked the move. The fact Leeds kept coming back and his agents comments throughout were clear indications they would have liked the move.

Why did he only sign a deal after failed bids and not earlier? Because if you aren't getting your move you may as well get a better salary. I'd do the exact same thing.

And now you bring up the best bit. His Interview after signing the deal. I love you have taken that bit of club pr as gospel. Brilliant. It was SO clear from everything in that interview that he was hardly BUZZING WITH SHEER DELIGHT.

My view has nothing to do with Leeds fans. It's to do with my eyes.

I'm not blinded to think players love our club. We are an employee.

None of the above is a criticism of Ben. When it was clear to me he wanted to go to Leeds I had no issue with it. But he knuckled down, worked hard and now he is getting his move. Fair play to him.

Top post. Got it right all the way. Blue and white tinted specs will always try and pretend it's different, of course. I'm sure he'd have loved to have been Leeds United's £30M star CB leading them into the PL, and beloved of Leeds fans everywhere. As it is, as an excellent young professional, he has knuckled down and delivered for us. Now his agent is pushing for the big pay day we didn't give him (the agent) last year!

 

[GloryDays]

Do you know something we don’t ?

Not officially, no. I know as much / little as most others here...but I'm enough of a realist to assume his move to Arsenal is as good as done having agreed personal terms, stated as fact by The Guardian...so would take a Boriseqsue U-turn to see him turn out for Biancoazzuri next season.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Disappointing. Feel a bit short changed. £50m for any player isn't money to turn your nose up to but given the potential of Potterball, with this group of players...just feel like one more season with Biss, White, Lamp, Dunk, etc, and we could have really seen what we were about. Just feels like we never got out of 2nd gear last season..

Unless the true Potterball is to come with ALL academy players?

 

[GT49er]

Well look at it this way. Let’s break it down.

We have plenty of evidence that Ben was happy to come back here after Leeds.

- didn’t make a transfer request
- signed a new 4 year deal
- interviews at the time
- despite someone up thread saying how “unhappy” Ben looked, his social media seems quite the opposite, how proud he was of the boys in various results. He said he was “never prouder” in football than our result at Anfield
- Brighton Twitter has actually referenced things subtly by posting Ben White smiling threads (which I linked above)
- his on record admiration of Dunky
- his message to Leeds fans was his way of getting closure.

And your evidence is, “a feeling” ultimately that it’s blindingly obvious he wanted to go back to Leeds.

Yes, of curse he said and did some of those things. He is a consummate young professional - and as for admiring Dunk and being proud of the win at Anfield - who wouldn't?

I rest my case.

You haven't made one.

 

[GT49er]

“There was a tinge of disappointment but that passed quickly”.

Yeah seems like he was real desperate to go.

What would you expect him to say? Of course he'd say that!

 

[GloryDays]

Unless the true Potterball is to come with ALL academy players?

That would be amazing but really someone of BW's ability (IMO) comes once in a blue moon. I really do think he'll go all the way to the top. I guess many will see his move to Arsenal as effectively doing that. I know this will sound naive given the stature of both clubs but this almost feels like a sideways move. It is possible I am totally deluded though.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Not officially, no. I know as much / little as most others here...but I'm enough of a realist to assume his move to Arsenal is as good as done having agreed personal terms, stated as fact by The Guardian...so would take a Boriseqsue U-turn to see him turn out for Biancoazzuri next season.

The Guardian stating facts, interesting.

 

[clapham_gull]

Just read the Argus story, but I've taken with a pinch of salt the stories in the newspapers about an impending transfer.

I'd be very surprised that either or Arsenal or Brighton would announce a transfer regarding a player who is currently on international duty in a major tournament. They just wouldn't do that because it is highly disrespectful to the current England manager, who I'd imagine is trying to focus the players.

 

[clapham_gull]

Not officially, no. I know as much / little as most others here...but I'm enough of a realist to assume his move to Arsenal is as good as done having agreed personal terms, stated as fact by The Guardian...so would take a Boriseqsue U-turn to see him turn out for Biancoazzuri next season.

The Guardian is as bad as all the tabloids with transfer rumours. It's celebrity gossip to them, which clearly has an audience with their readers.

Brighton will sell one of their prize assets win the transfer window, but until it is announced I'd value a transfer rumour in the Guardian the same as I would the Daily Star.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Disappointing to be honest, I would have loved to have seen him stay at least one more year, he would by next season undoubtedly be in the England set up and possibly a regular, his value will only increase. I do you hope we got a healthy sell on clause, because by next year he’s going to be worth at least 75million.

Gutted

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Hang on how true is this…
Maybe, just Maybe, it’s not a done deal

https://www.teamtalk.com/news/ben-w...laims-dashed-well-placed-source-reveals-truth