Arsenal eye staggering £50m Ben White summer transfer

Arsenal continue to be linked with numerous centre-backs to the point where you wonder if Mikel Arteta is just going to sell all he has and start afresh. It’s become an integral area of the pitch to strengthen for the manager, who has now turned his sights to players closer to home.

William Saliba is returning and the Arsenal population want him to be starting every Premier League game from now until he retires. Arteta would probably fancy the same: he cost £27m, will (quite cleverly) class as homegrown and would lose the need to bring in another signing.

With him having but a few months to keep his job, he likelihood of him pinning his hopes on a 20-year-old without a single minute of senior English football to his name to sit alongside a similarly young Gabriel is near non-existent. Saliba may blow Arteta away and force himself to start – which everyone wants – but realism presides.

Thus, as has been widely reported, another centre-back is being eyed up this summer. Most of whom seem well beyond the Gunners’ reach. Financially, the £50m+ quotes for the likes of Edmond Tapsoba and French wonderkid Jules Kounde come across as pursuits worth ending early. Both are exceptional talents and would walk into the first team, yet both are also being tracked by sides in the Champions League with greater financial power behind them.

Arsenal eye staggering £50m Ben White summer transfer with Mikel Arteta eyeing other cheaper centre-backs in summer transfer window

Someone will arrive this summer if Arteta has his way and the rumour mill has coughed up another unlikely, but outstanding, candidate: Ben White.

Having been called up to England’s Euro 2020 squad (what coincidental timing for transfer links!), the Mirror and others have listed Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are interested parties for the hugely talented defender.

Shooting to prominence in the 2019/20 campaign, White played an integral role on loan in Leeds’ promotion to the Premier League where he earned the club’s Young Player of the Year and was named in the Championship PFA Team of the Season.

Efforts were made from Marcelo Bielsa’s side to sign him permanently, but Brighton stood firm and kept him on.

Operating in a back three for the Seagulls, White has also dabbled with central midfield where he held an interesting partnership with none other than Yves Bissouma. His performances across the season earned him yet another club Player Of The Season gong.

Arteta is a big fan (who isn’t?) and upon the Euros concluding, or at least England being eliminated, a move is mooted. Would it be the right one?

Continued…

Should Arsenal Sign Ben White From Brighton?

This can be answered very simply as yes.

Then the caveat comes with his £50m price tag. Where will this money come from? Standing here right now it’s very easy to pinpoint these rumours as opportunistic given his name started trending for a brief while. Such is the process. Arsenal may be ‘eyeing a move’ but they’ll also jump at the chance of Kylian Mbappe if it was financially viable.

What’s interesting is how White isn’t the first central defender to be linked with a north London move who will cost such a hefty sum. Kounde and Tapsoba will both cost more and, of the three, White is actually the most plausible acquisition. Such strong links to the other two suggest that Arteta sees centre-back as a real problem area, and if he can he’ll spend the goods to solidify it.

White is allowed to express himself in Graham Potter’s system, one that suits his profile. A ball-playing centre-back, the addition of two fellow centre-halves and wing-backs next to him gives him the stability to play out and drive his side up the pitch. Attempting 1.16 dribbles per 90 sits him in the 98th percentile (fbref), with his completed figure up in the 96th. The 23-year-old is so confident and calm with the ball at his feet. A vital modern trait.

From here he can contribute in multiple phases of the attack, with passes into the penalty area worthy of a 93rd percentile score. As far as his xG goes it’s very low, but this is a Brighton side without a single forward who knows how to finish, he’s perhaps followed suit. And, y’know, he’s a cente-back. White’s xA is much better, however, sitting in the 69th percentile with 0.23 key passes per game which indicates his quality after carrying.

These follow through into shot-creating actions where his overal SCA sits at 0.73, with an 84th percentile ranking for dribbles leading to a shot.

Overall though, it’s his composure in possession that is most striking. He demonstrated that in the second tier and hasn’t looked back following on into the Championship. Looking like he might be starting for England in Euro 2020 if he Harry Maguire isn’t fit, that could be truly tested.

However, Arsenal do have their sights on another (cheaper) defender, who also happens to be homegrown. The sign of a change in approach?

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Arsenal Consider £10m Move for Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo

£10m! A significantly less eye-watering sum albeit for a significantly less glamourous central defender. On paper that is, anyway, as Tosin Adarabioyo was one of the few shining lights of a gloomy Fulham season (not Joachim Andersen this time).

Due to the Cottagers’ relegation last term, Adarabioyo will be available for purchase by any side that activates his £10m release clause. As per the Daily Mail, that clause will expire 30 days before the Championship begins season, which will begin on August 7.

Standing at over 6’4″, it’s little surprise that the 23-year-old excels in the air. Winning 71.9% of his aerial duels last season, the former Manchester City youth also led the entire Premier League for clearances on 193. He also showed excellent discipline throughout the campaign, committing as few as 0.58 fouls per 90 and picking up just the solitary yellow card in 33 outings.

It’s very hard to judge players who featured in such dire sides. What can be noted, however, is the very differing profiles of player Arteta is (supposedly) after.

White makes sense in that he adds a creativity and possession-based progression in phase one of the attack, the kind that Arsenal have lacked. Luiz added it with distribution whereas White – and Kounde – do so through their carries. They also allow Arsenal to adopt a higher line and try to squeeze the pitch, with their pace valuable in defending transitions. Funnily enough, despite his huge frame, Adarabioyo recorded the fastest sprint time of any defender in the Premier League last term.

The latter two links aiming for a homegrown option are intriguing, too. All rumours need consuming with healthy seasoning, but does going down that route suggest more homegrown departures and non-homegrown signings elsewhere across the team? Amid all the toxic sludge of speculation one might as well dabble themselves, eh?

As for Adarabioyo, he would be happily inexpensive. Does his potential arrival usurp Saliba from the side, though? He’s not the elite to do so.