Ben White Signing Confirmed: Page 10 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Ben White Signing Confirmed

Burnwinter

It was hard on Koscielny. At least the mistake against Birmingham he made actually cost us something, even though he was still paying for it with certain people three or four solid seasons later.

I get why people are wondering about White's transfer given everything, but it's not the kid's fault.

Clrnc

Burnwinter wrote:
Interesting compilation. I don't think people would be harping much on the defects of his performance if he hadn't made that one absolute howler.

Pretty tricky situation for a young defender moving up to a much bigger club with an enormous price tag attached. No way to make that any easier.

In the match thread everyone was mentioning how poor White looked way before that howler. But in almost every criticism, the bottomline is he needs time and not the ready made product at all that some were putting expectations on.

Koscielny got sent off on his debut for us, but have a look at the match thread and almost everyone was raving over him.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Could you link us that thread? 🙂

I remember a preseason friendly at the Emirates vs Milan in 2010 and Kos looked phenomenal.

Big Willie

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Throw in that he’s British and signed by Arteta and folk want blood Burnsy.

Koscielny, who arguably turned out to be one of our best defensive players of the past few decades, had a real tough time early in his career with us only to go on to reach man god levels.

Dunno what your obsession is with accusing people of being anti British just cuz they don't think White was a signing we should have made. I think the same and I'm British. Am I anti myself?

Burnwinter

Fair point Clrnc. The comparison isn't much use, Koscielny was 25 and a pretty seasoned player when he arrived.

Phenomenal athlete and incredibly courageous as well, which led to a few of those errors but also had a tremendous upside.

Clrnc

Burnwinter wrote:
Fair point. The comparison isn't much use, Koscielny was 25 and a pretty seasoned player when he arrived.

Phenomenal athlete and incredibly courageous as well, which led to a few of those errors but also had a tremendous upside.

Koscielny was far from a seasoned player. In fact he had lesser experience than Saliba in top flight Ligue 1 before he joined us. He literally played only 1 season there and Wenger just signed him. Pretty much nobody heard of him before, therefore the surprise how good he was with us right away without needing to adapt much. It was a real find by Wenger, probably one of his best defensive signing at 10m only.

Till now I think in terms of upside and 1v1 defending he is the best I have seen along with Sol.

Ricky1985

Clrnc wrote:
Burnwinter wrote:
Interesting compilation. I don't think people would be harping much on the defects of his performance if he hadn't made that one absolute howler.

Pretty tricky situation for a young defender moving up to a much bigger club with an enormous price tag attached. No way to make that any easier.

In the match thread everyone was mentioning how poor White looked way before that howler. But in almost every criticism, the bottomline is he needs time and not the ready made product at all that some were putting expectations on.

Koscielny got sent off on his debut for us, but have a look at the match thread and almost everyone was raving over him.

We were very different fans back then with a very different view of all things Arsenal!

Nobody has said White is the finished product btw. He's 23 and only has one season of PL football behind him. But he is very good already and going to quickly get better because he has a ton of quality.

Gazza M

koscielny also cost a few million quid aka project price. he could've become a middling player or flamed out entirely, and we would've been able to absorb it. we really can't afford for white to become anything short of a very good defender

Qwiss

I think the Kos comparison is a good one. He was clearly a player with a lot of talent but also needed some serious coaching to reach the level required.

We paid about twice what White is worth for him but thats not the lads fault. He was awful on Saturday but I think he's worth persisting with.

TambourineMan

I don't think anyone is saying Ben White is shit, it's just that we feel that the club:

spent too much; and
could have arguably prioritised the funds elsewhere and given Saliba a go this season

It is just not a good use of resources for a club like Arsenal. We are not Manchester City where we can throw £50m at defenders who are 'not the finished product' especially when we already spent £30m on another just a few summers before. It's asinine.

Captain

They backed the manager - what's the big deal?

Arteta doesn't want Saliba, he does want White. End of that particular story.

TambourineMan

And as fans on a football forum we are allowed to discuss if that was the right call or not. We don't have to blindly accept everything Arteta does without question.

Captain

You don't.

But this is the Ben White thread and every other post is about Saliba. He has his own thread, Arteta has his own thread; there is no need for Saliba to be mentioned whenever speaking about White - it's folly and it's boring.

TambourineMan

Unfortunately his performances don't exist in a vacuum and he will always be compared to the other young player in his position on our books. Players are compared against each other - it happens all the time and seems like a weird thing to be complaining about.

Captain

The other young player is in France playing for a different team.

TambourineMan

So?

Captain

So if anything is weird, it's constantly going on about a non-arsenal player vis-a-vis an Arsenal player. It's weird and boring.

Talk about Holding, a guy who is actually an alternative. Or, you know, talk about Ben White given this is his thread.

Saliba is not selectable - what's the point of talking about him in relation to Ben White or the team's performances. We are six weeks into the season - let it go.

TambourineMan

Captain wrote:
So if anything is weird, it's constantly going on about a non-arsenal player vis-a-vis an Arsenal player. It's weird and boring.

Talk about Holding, a guy who is actually an alternative. Or, you know, talk about Ben White given this is his thread.

Saliba is not selectable - what's the point of talking about him in relation to Ben White or the team's performances. We are six weeks into the season - let it go.

Why? This is what we are discussing.

Captain

So, as said, discuss it in his, arteta's, edus thread or another section. Fairly simple.

TambourineMan

We are not going to agree on this but it absolutely makes sense to benchmark White against Saliba. People still go about Martinez vs Leno. When one player is picked over another they are going to be compared against each other because like I said player performance doesn't exist in a vacuum.

« Previous Page Next Page »