[Football] Arsenal’s Ben White

[B-right-on]

After all this is over I'd love to see a decent journalist go back over the timeline from the very first media report up until the day the transfer happens.

Create a timeline of truth vs BS. It would be so enlightening to know just how much is completely made up and how much has a grain of truth.

Not sure if this has ever been done before? It would take quite a bit of work and require the help of the real ITK people involved (agents, club, etc.).

Has it ever been done before?

Can be done with Dunky last ysr6. Everton, Chelsea and so on. Journos just invent shite to fill space and get attention

 

[Brovion]

This time of the football year is usually a prime one for made-up nonsense in the papers and on the websites, but this summer has been especially ridiculous. 99 percent of it is complete rubbish.

Example - the Dunk to Leicester story in 2019. Leicester had just sold Maguire so the ignorant assumed that they would be using some of the money to buy a direct replacement. They didn't bother finding out that Leicester already had Soyuncu ready to go after a year's grooming. Instead they seized on a highly speculative twitter suggestion (ironically from an Albion fan) that Dunk might go there. An unscrupulous agent (of a player at a different club) fueled the fire and "confirmed" the stories in order to put pressure on a client's club to give his boy a new contract in case we were looking at him as to replace Dunk. Meanwhile, anybody who bothered to contact Dunky's agent was assured that he was "97 percent" certain to stay. But almost nobody did.

This is the sort of 2+2=5 guesswork that goes on, put together by "journalists" who don't have real contacts at clubs that they can check with, or don't bother calling in case it knocks their story down (eg the "Bloom to hold inquest with Potter" Mail tale). It led to The Sun writing that a certain manager wanted to buy a player from his former club, not knowing that he had left that club over an affair with that same player's wife.

So while Ben White may indeed end up at Arsenal/Chelsea/Everton/Man City, most of the stuff out there comes from clickbait providers repeating each other's rumours. It really is the definition of an echo chamber. I'm much more inclined to believe Brian Owen than any of the unpaid interns on the online desks of the Express and Mirror. Brian, you see, has this old-fashioned habit of getting on the phone and checking stories with people who might know..

Years ago there was a lovely cartoon in WSC I think showing a journalist with a blindfold picking three bits of paper out of three different pots, being watched by his colleagues. The caption read: "Vinnie Jones ...... to Real Madrid ....... for five million. Yeah, that'll do."

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Duncan Castles is a moron who talks absolute shit usually, I'd take anything he is says with a big pinch of salt.

I know Duncan and while he's by no means a moron, he was at one point a conduit for the Jose Mourinho camp, so has lost his USP to the UK media. If he wants to stay relevant he has to find another source of information, but I happen to think he has chosen poorly.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

I know Duncan and while he's by no means a moron, he was at one point a conduit for the Jose Mourinho camp, so has lost his USP to the UK media. If he wants to stay relevant he has to find another source of information, but I happen to think he has chosen poorly.

Yep. Maybe moron is harsh but that Mourinho stuff has ruined him, can't take anything seriously he says anymore. He almost became a parody.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

The Club doesn't take kindly to leaks: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-48938001

Are they still vowing to clear their names?


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[Horses Arse]

Maybe. Its pretty sexy to leak / announce the fee when you make your largest ever sale as its a feather in the hat.

It's never sexy to leak..experience has taught me that

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[Icy Gull]

Would Ben White have been as certain to leave if he hadn’t been called up to the England squad do you think? It has raised his profile massively, even if he hasn’t spent a minute in the pitch in the tournament. Just the one impressive sub appearance in a friendly

 

[blockhseagull]

Would Ben White have been as certain to leave if he hadn’t been called up to the England squad do you think? It has raised his profile massively, even if he hasn’t spent a minute in the pitch in the tournament. Just the one impressive sub appearance in a friendly

And a start against Romania

 

[golddene]

And a start against Romania

where he played the full match !

 

[B-right-on]

Would Ben White have been as certain to leave if he hadn’t been called up to the England squad do you think? It has raised his profile massively, even if he hasn’t spent a minute in the pitch in the tournament. Just the one impressive sub appearance in a friendly

Definitely added to the certainty and price tag imo. Any of the big teams can call their players in the England camp and ask their thoughts on BW and I'm sure they'll get a very positive feedback.

The way he was celebrating the Ukraine and Germany wins even tho he was not in the match day squads, shows his character imo.

Training with the England set up for the past month can only help him with his career, even if he stays.

 

[Icy Gull]

And a start against Romania

Oh yeah

 

[Baldseagull]

The little embellishment, "Arteta sees him as a future Captain" has intrigued me, I just can't imagine he would say that, but I can't imagine a reporter making that detail up either. It would only come up I would think in negotiations with the agent, e.g. agent asking how they see BW fitting into the side, and the Arsenal response being OTT to make sure there is no worry about being Guendouzied.

 

[Stat Brother]

Now that the euros have ended I wonder if there'll be any speculation about clubs trying to buy White?

 

[nicko31]

Now that the euros have ended I wonder if there'll be any speculation about clubs trying to buy White?

Euro runner up medal, that's an extra £20m...

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I'm really glad that the club didn't sell White during the tournament.

Now we could see a bidding frenzy

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Euro runner up medal, that's an extra £20m...

I suspect the cleaners for the England changing room got a good haul of those medals last night.

 

[Official Old Man]

I suspect the cleaners for the England changing room got a good haul of those medals last night.

White took his off straight away. Thing is, in my mind, you've worked hard to get that medal so keep it. 572 players went home with nothing. Yes it's not what you or the country wanted, but it's better than nothing.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

White took his off straight away. Thing is, in my mind, you've worked hard to get that medal so keep it. 572 players went home with nothing. Yes it's not what you or the country wanted, but it's better than nothing.

I think it was mainly the players who hadn't featured in the tournament who took off their medals, which I can understand.
I would hope those that played will be proud of the medal.

 

[casbom]

Owen this morning in The Argus says no bid has been accepted and it would take a "nonsensical" bid to be accepted as we want to keep him. So if he does go, it could be a package of around £70m, that would be "nonsensical" I would have thought!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I suspect the cleaners for the England changing room got a good haul of those medals last night.

I doubt it. Yes, some the players took them off, but that is a huge step to actually throwing them away.