Mirth wrote:

Klaus wrote:

I'm not getting into an argument over his level, but I think White is just where we want him to be on the curve. There's been a clear progression ever since his breakthrough at Leeds and he has kept it up at Arsenal. I think he's developing nicely under less than ideal circumstances. Tomiyasu and Gabriel seem to provide him with a similar environment that Webber and Dunk did at Brighton.

Agreed, also we moved for White at the right time. I did have misgivings due to his relative inexperience but it's also true that another season at Brighton would see us priced out of a move.

We did spend £50m on him, don't think another season at Brighton would have seen him go for more than that.

Tottenham signed Romero for a very similar amount - and his star was hardly soaring.

White is going to be one of the best centrebacks around and soon, in my opinion. Even if he wouldn't necessarily have gone for way more than £50m, we would have stood bo chance when City figured out he's going to be twice as good as John Stones, and so on.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Tottenham signed Romero for a very similar amount - and his star was hardly soaring.

He was voted Best Defender of Serie A last season. He didn't look anything special when Juve paid big money for him couple years ago, last year was his breakthrough season plus he starts for Argentina now. Not to say he'll be better for Spurs than White for us but it's not really up to opinion whether he had a bigger profile than him last season.

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/mikel-arteta-edu-transfer-window-22155934
"The Gunners, who sit fifth in the table after overcoming a difficult start to the campaign, have £201m to play with without breaking financial fair play regulations according to a new report from the academic Kieran Maguire, which was first published in the Daily Mail."

Potentially good news to be able to finish off the rebuild so as to push hard for top4 this season. Caveat being that just because we can spend that amount, doesn't mean to say we have that amount available post COVID. According to the same report TH leads the way and could spend 400m, but I'd suggest their stadium debt and lack of revenues during COVID restrictions will take most of any revenues they have available.

Another thing with Romero is like most foreign players it is better to judge him next season as it takes them time to settle. Part of the reason you pay a premium for British talent is they usually settle in very quickly.

I'm not entirely convinced by White defensively yet, in the next few weeks we'll have a better idea of how good he is in that respect.

Even if Romero does not work out, Spurs can send him back to Atalanta in summer.

He is only on a loan with an option to buy in 2022.

mentalvortex wrote:

Even if Romero does not work out, Spurs can send him back to Atalanta in summer.

He is only on a loan with an option to buy in 2022.

Interesting. There must be some fluffing the books going on there because Atalanta got Demiral on loan with option to buy from Juve. Feel as if Spurs probably agreed to pay them next year so it'll hit their books then so that they can pay Juve for Demiral. 

jones wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

Tottenham signed Romero for a very similar amount - and his star was hardly soaring.

He was voted Best Defender of Serie A

White has done alright after a first few awful matches but posts like this, regardless of what you actually think of Romero, highlight his biases perfectly.

Fair enough. I didn't know he was voted defender of the year, ignorance on my part.

I had actually never heard of him and hadn't seen anyone on here talking about him, add to the fact that he ended up at shitty Tottenham, and in a summer when everyone was giving them a wide berth (even more so than normal) and I assumed he wasn't particularly high profile.

Sorry about that post Ricky, was uncalled for.

No worries, Quince.

Really wish we could have signed Bernardo Silva . So good running with ball and in possession

If Arteta pulls this off I'll forgive everything

Still only 24 years old, think there is still a class player there. Barca has been a complete shitshow for years now and he is one of many who have been caught up in that mess. Didn't he have a decent season for them last season?

jones wrote:

If Arteta pulls this off I'll forgive everything

that's a signing I don't mind us blowing the budget on. could definitely see man United being on his case if pogba goes

Is he the real deal then? I've never paid too much attention to him, a friend of mine is convinced he's a massive fraud.

People tend to under rate him because for a so-called playmaker he doesn't score or assist that many goals.

What is his skillset? What does he bring to a team? Who would you compare him to?