Qwiss
I think this is quite a wild interpretation of the Ben White transfer and his time with us. He was signed at a time when William Saliba wasn't deemed to be ready for first team football. He came in, formed a pretty decent partnership with Gabriel, thereby relegating Rob Holding to a position of first reserve and that partnership might have got us to the Champions League in 2022, had both players not got injured resulting in the Rob Holding disasterclass at the Lane.
One year later, Saliba is now deemed ready for first team football - what does it mean for Ben White? Well, it means he can go and play right back and do a pretty excellent job there until he runs out of legs, along with the rest of the team, towards the end of the season.
His versatility marks him out as a clear asset within the squad, so much so that when Gabriel's agent was flirting with Saudi Arabia 6 months ago, the big man was dropped - or perhaps it was genuinely done for tactical reasons. Whatever Gabriel was benched for, the presence of Ben White enabled Arteta to make that call.
At a time when Arsenal have suffered through a lack of rotation options, whether due to injuries, or lopsided squad building (or, if you prefer, both), it seems a bit mad to say it's "only fitness" keeping Ben White in place.
1) I don't think that's true.
2) Even if it was, as we have discussed in reference to Thomas Partey for, well, ever - fitness is a pretty key requisite for any footballer.
In addition to Partey, Tomiyasu has similarly been described (harshly, but probably fairly) here as injury prone.
How can the addition of a quality, versatile footballer who is generally available 95% of the time (113 appearances in 2.5 seasons & 90/97 Premier League appearances) be looked at as "not really using their resources as well as they could"?
To me, Ben White is actually one of the best signings we've made under this manager. He's up there with Gabriel and Odegaard.
And Declan Rice, obvs.
