[Albion] Ben White Signs new deal

[Mancgull]

Manchester based Man Utd supporting friends are saying that Utd are regularly scouting him.
Wasn't Knockaert the Championship player on the season in our promotion year? Hope all the hype doesn't blow up in our faces re Ben.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

An article on White in The Athletic today. Any subscribers on NSC?

https://theathletic.com/1408731/

It's a long description by Adam Crafton of going to watch White play for Leeds at Luton with BW's mum and dad. Barely mentioned Albion and shied away completely from any consideration of what might happen in January or at the end of the season. Least boring bits:


Shortly before the end of July, over a cup of coffee at Elland Road, Leeds’ sporting director Victor Orta stirred in his seat.

And, if you will forgive the personal anecdote, the conversation went a little like this. “My dad is a big Leeds fan,” I explained. “And he’s asked me to see whether you’ll buy a centre-back.”

Leeds had recently sold centre-back Pontus Jansson for a £6 million fee to Brentford. As the season approached, the club were yet to spend money on a replacement.

They had done one deal, and, sorry Dad, but his printable assessment of that one was “They’ve taken some young kid from Brighton but need more.” I relayed this to Orta and the Spaniard raised a smile.

“Trust me,” Orta said. “In a couple of months’ time, everyone will realise how good a signing we have made here. We believe the boy is going to be a star.”

The boy in question is 22-year-old Ben White, on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion and now excelling at the heart of the Leeds defence.

He is on loan from Brighton for the season — Leeds were unable to secure an option for a permanent deal — and it is little wonder that Liverpool, Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers have all been credited with a sustained interest. His uncle Malcolm, a Manchester United supporter, is jokingly wincing at the reported Liverpool interest. The speculation could be dizzying for any young player but his mum says: “He just tells me, ‘I need to keep my head down and keep doing well here.’ That’s what he is doing.”

Leeds wanted White on loan at the start of last season. He had impressed for Newport County in an FA Cup victory against Leeds in January 2018 but Brighton manager Chris Hughton wanted to keep him at the Premier League club for the first half of the last campaign. When Leeds came calling again this summer, there was no hesitation. White wanted the move.

Upon arriving at Leeds, the intensity of Marcelo Bielsa’s fitness regime initially startled Ben.

(His mother) Carole says: “The first week, he was on the phone to me saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be up to this, Mum’ but he kept saying he was determined to do it. He does not give in. His centre-back partner, Liam Cooper, spoke to him and said, ‘Dig in and you’ll be fine.’ Now he absolutely loves it.

“When he went to a meeting with Leeds in the summer, they said, ‘You are exactly what Marcelo Bielsa would be looking for.’ That’s all you want to hear. Ben says there are things he now does on the pitch, from all those training sessions, without even thinking about it. They spend all week rehearsing and then you do it naturally.”

In truth, Ben has overcome much more than an increase in training ground intensity. He has spent his life demonstrating resilience and courage, first to overcome life-threatening illnesses as a child and then to respond to rejection when Southampton released him at the age of 16. As the clock ticks towards 3pm and the stand fills up, Carole returns to Ben’s childhood.

She says: “His immune system was not working. If somebody sneezed, he would end up with pneumonia. He had appendicitis and he didn’t come around from that for a while. He had six or seven different infections. He was in hospital for much of his young life, for months at a time. They said, ‘Take him home. He is probably safer at home because of the amount of bugs around hospitals.’

“Now, he’s not got any allergies at all and the treatment worked. But back then, all those days in hospital, we could never have imagined he could be an athlete. But the specialists did say that the more exercise he did, the better that would be to spark the immune system. So we put him into football, swimming, athletics, rugby, cricket, gymnastics… he did it all.

“But it is still surreal. My brother and I were talking the other day about seeing Ben on television. It’s so weird as a mum and you just think, ‘Gosh, this sickly little lad and now look at him!'”

Having battled through illness, Ben enrolled in Southampton’s academy system. He was there for eight years, then came the one-on-one meeting where he was informed he would be released.

“I just gave him a big hug,” says Carole. “As we drove away from the training ground, he said to me, ‘What do we do now, Mum?’ I just said, ‘It’s what you want to do, Ben. Whatever you want to do, we support you.’ He said, ‘I want to be a professional footballer, Mum.’ So I said, ‘OK. Tomorrow I will get on the phone to the clubs.”

As it transpired, Carole did not need to chase clubs. Calls came in, first from Brighton, then trials for Leicester City and Bristol City. Ben woke up next morning and asked his mum to leave the mobile phones at home and just have the day together at a local shopping centre. Eventually, they settled on a move to Brighton.

Leeds supporters do not always fall head over heels for their loan talent. Just ask Izzy Brown, who struggled there on loan from Chelsea last season and is playing against them today for his sixth different loan club. He receives an airing of, “You’re too shit to play for Leeds.”

 

[Uter]

Having battled through illness, Ben enrolled in Southampton’s academy system. He was there for eight years, then came the one-on-one meeting where he was informed he would be released.

“I just gave him a big hug,” says Carole. “As we drove away from the training ground, he said to me, ‘What do we do now, Mum?’ I just said, ‘It’s what you want to do, Ben. Whatever you want to do, we support you.’ He said, ‘I want to be a professional footballer, Mum.’ So I said, ‘OK. Tomorrow I will get on the phone to the clubs.”

As it transpired, Carole did not need to chase clubs. Calls came in, first from Brighton, then trials for Leicester City and Bristol City. Ben woke up next morning and asked his mum to leave the mobile phones at home and just have the day together at a local shopping centre. Eventually, they settled on a move to Brighton.

Released at 16 by Southampton. It just goes to show how hard it is to judge young players, even at 16 when you'd think the future stars would be pretty obvious.

Bearing in mind that Wan-Bissaka went to Man Utd for a reported £50m, if he does as well for us next season in the PL as he has done for Leeds it's not too far fetched to envisage a bidding war that results in a transfer fee equal to the entire outlay on the academy so far, capital expenditure and running costs combined (around £70m by my estimation). Not that I'd want him to leave.

Whoever signed him deserves a bonus.

 

[Icy Gull]

Keep looking at these articles hoping to see a comment about how much he wants to play for the Albion in the PL...

 

[nwgull]

Released at 16 by Southampton. It just goes to show how hard it is to judge young players, even at 16 when you'd think the future stars would be pretty obvious.

Bearing in mind that Wan-Bissaka went to Man Utd for a reported £50m, if he does as well for us next season in the PL as he has done for Leeds it's not too far fetched to envisage a bidding war that results in a transfer fee equal to the entire outlay on the academy so far, capital expenditure and running costs combined (around £70m by my estimation). Not that I'd want him to leave.

Whoever signed him deserves a bonus.

How did you get to 70m? Academy costs about 3-4m a year to run, doesn't it? But yeah, shows what a bit of forward planning does in terms of giving a club firm foundations - coz there are more than just Ben White coming through. A few on here saw the money spent building Lancing as a waste that should've been spent on strikers with over-inflated fees and wages.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

More is written in the press about young Ben White, than any current Albion premier League player.

 

[Icy Gull]

More is written in the press about young Ben White, than any current Albion premier League player.

Nothing to do with him playing for the MIGHTY Leeds United I’m sure

 

[Triggaaar]

Keep looking at these articles hoping to see a comment about how much he wants to play for the Albion in the PL...

Here you go:

The speculation could be dizzying for any young player but his mum says: “He just tells me, ‘I need to keep my head down and keep doing well here.’ That’s what he is doing.”

 

[Icy Gull]

Here you go:

Nah, that was pre Leeds wasn’t it? If it wasn’t then he must be talking about Leeds Can you find one since he went to Leeds?

 

[Triggaaar]

Nah, that was pre Leeds wasn’t it? If it wasn’t then he must be talking about Leeds Can you find one since he went to Leeds?

That was while at Leeds, talking about Leeds. I know you asked for a comment about us, but my point was that he's just concentrating on playing football. He's not letting himself get distracted by the prospect of walking out at the Amex, he's just going to complete his apprenticeship and see where it takes him.

 

[symyjym]

Can we pull him from Leeds in January or is it a strict season long loan?

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Difficult to judge him considering he’s been played out of position most of the time.

Perhaps, but he’s unlikely to ever be a first choice CB I would suggest.

I think just struggles with touch when hurried, and also has a habit of dropping off and stepping up blindly....




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[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Can we pull him from Leeds in January or is it a strict season long loan?

We can recall him in January but Potter has already been quoted as saying it's very unlikely. Unless we have an injury crisis at centre back we are happy to let Ben see out the season at Leeds and continue his footballing education.

 

[symyjym]

Personally, I’d recall him and off-load Burn.

Burn was very good early on, but really just isn’t quite good enough.



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I wouldn't offload Burn or Duffy to get White here, I would just give White the Stephens role as a defensive midfielder so the opposition has to get through him first. He can also play right back if we needed him or is better than Montoya.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I wouldn't offload Burn or Duffy to get White here, I would just give White the Stephens role as a defensive midfielder so the opposition has to get through him first. He can also play right back if we needed him or is better than Montoya.

I think we have abundance of CBs and IMO Burn is weakest.

I certainly don’t think White is as good as Stephens, but can understand the logic.
Interesting re RB, as initially I thought that may be White’s future when I first saw him.




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[Icy Gull]

I think we have abundance of CBs and IMO Burn is weakest.

I certainly don’t think White is as good as Stephens, but can understand the logic.
Interesting re RB, as initially I thought that may be White’s future when I first saw him.




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I have no idea how good he is but it seems many fans already see him as the finished product although he’s playing at a level below us in one of the best teams in the division. Although Sheffield United’s results this season may seem to disprove it, the step up from the Championship to the PL is a very very big one. Wasn’t Webster one of the best defenders last season, although he’s doing well he is not looking like a top PL player yet. Playing and shining in midfield is even tougher at this level, especially in a lower league team.

 

[Uter]

How did you get to 70m? Academy costs about 3-4m a year to run, doesn't it? But yeah, shows what a bit of forward planning does in terms of giving a club firm foundations - coz there are more than just Ben White coming through. A few on here saw the money spent building Lancing as a waste that should've been spent on strikers with over-inflated fees and wages.

I think it opened in 2014 so it's been in operation for just over 5 years. I think Paul Barber mentioned a figure of £5m per annum so the total running costs to date will be in the £20-£25m ball park. A few slightly different figures for the initial building cost were given, but £30m seemed to be the number most frequently quoted and seems very plausible. They are currently upgrading it and I believe this was reported as a further £20m investment. All comes to around £70-£75m (!!!).

Each category 1 academy gets a grant towards running costs, which IIRC, is around £900k per year. Obviously American Express sponsor the facility, but this won't be much in the grand scheme of things, so even taking grants and sponsorship into account we're still talking around £65-70m in total.

Tony Bloom certainly has a very clear idea about how he wants to progress the club and has backed his vision with a huge, huge sum.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Surely if we think he is good enough we try him in the PL as soon as we can. Connolly and Alzate have proven that if you are good enough you are old enough.

I would still see Burn and probably Duffy retained with Balogun to miss out . Saturday told us that we need to increase the pace at the back and I reckon he is faster than what wecurrently have.

Being pragmatic by getting him back here a) severs the link with Leeds before it gets too strong b) playing in the PL will add £10-£15 million to his price should he push for a move elsewhere

 

[vagabond]

I wouldn't offload Burn or Duffy to get White here, I would just give White the Stephens role as a defensive midfielder so the opposition has to get through him first. He can also play right back if we needed him or is better than Montoya.

Interesting. Is there any fact behind your idea that White can play Dales role or is that just pure speculation?

I mean I like the idea for sure.

 

[vagabond]

Surely if we think he is good enough we try him in the PL as soon as we can. Connolly and Alzate have proven that if you are good enough you are old enough.

I would still see Burn and probably Duffy retained with Balogun to miss out . Saturday told us that we need to increase the pace at the back and I reckon he is faster than what wecurrently have.

Being pragmatic by getting him back here a) severs the link with Leeds before it gets too strong b) playing in the PL will add £10-£15 million to his price should he push for a move elsewhere

The sounds from the club suggests he won’t be recalled, and that makes sense tbh. There’s no rush here, also makes sense playing wise and business wise to leave him where he is.

Right now he has guaranteed 1st team spot in a very dynamic Leeds side. If we recalled him and for whatever reason didn’t play much or got injured, his value would stagnate, or worse.. be seen as not good enough for the Prem.

By leaving him where he is we virtually guarantee he’ll be one of the Championship defenders of the year, his value will match that of Mings (20 odd million). If he then takes of for us his value could potentially go through the roof.

It’s a really fantastic problem to have and I can’t wait to see which prospects we loan out next year.