Arsenal insider Charles Watts has provided his take on the recent reports surrounding Ben White and a potential move to the Gunners.
An article from The Mirror last week claimed that Arsenal were one of the sides interested in signing the England international, who has been valued at £50m by his current side Brighton and Hove Albion, with The Athletic adding to the story later in the week saying that Arsenal “are believed to be preparing a move” for his services.
£50m does seem like a lot of money to be spending on one player for Arsenal, especially considering the financial situation they are in, which will be made worse when coupled with their lack of European football next season.
But speaking on his show, Watts noted that whilst it would be a good signing for Arsenal to make, he didn’t feel that the Gunners would spend all their money on White this summer and that they could still address other areas of the pitch if they were to sign him:
“I think he’d be a really exciting signing, I have to say; I think he’s excellent. I know there’s a lot of talk Arsenal don’t need a centre-back, they should be spending their money elsewhere. I do think they’re going to spend money elsewhere, I don’t think it’s a case of Arsenal going to waste all of their money on Ben White and have nothing left for anywhere else.
“I don’t think they’d do that, I’d be stunned if they do that, because it’s clear they need to improve the squad in other areas. But I do think centre-back is an option that they also have to strengthen.”
TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments about Ben White potentially moving to Arsenal…
Would you like to see Arsenal sign Ben White?
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There’s no doubt that the addition of White would benefit Arsenal immensely both in attack and in defence.
His tackles and interceptions numbers from last year would have put him joint-fifth and first respectively up against this current Arsenal side, whilst he can also help out in starting attacks with an average pass count of 48.5 per game and pass completion rate of 83.2% (as per WhoScored).
But with that reported asking price, Arsenal may have to get drastic in order to make it happen.
Watts later mentions in his video about potentially having to swap players to sweeten the deal, but if they want to bring in White and still have plenty of money left over to address the rest of the squad as Watts hints, it might take a lot of sweetening before both Arsenal and Brighton can come to an agreement.
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