The Gunners have added an England international defender to their ranks, with Edu and Co holding their nerve in a long-running saga
Ben White’s agent has discussed his client’s move from Brighton to Arsenal, with the Gunners praised for holding their nerve in a £50 million ($69m) game of “poker” with Seagulls chairman Tony Bloom.
Bloom, a professional gambler, oversees events at the Amex Stadium and is not a man that will cash in his chips without a fight.
Premier League heavyweights from north London have, however, prevailed in a long-running battle of wills, with an England international defender lured away from the south coast as Mikel Arteta and Co played a winning hand.
What has been said?
White’s representative, Alex Levack, has told Sky Sports of a big-money deal: “The main challenge really was agreeing the fee between the two clubs and structuring the deal in the right way.
“Brighton didn’t really want to sell and weren’t really willing to give a valuation for the player, and with Tony Bloom being a professional poker player and gambler, he was hard to read.”
Will White be a success at Arsenal?
The talented and versatile 23-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence.
White was on loan at Peterborough in League One as recently as 2018-19, before going on to enhance his reputation the following year in a Championship title-winning campaign at Leeds.
He took in 39 appearances back at Brighton last season, earning him senior international recognition and a spot in Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2020 squad along the way, before Arsenal came calling in the latest transfer window.
White has been endearing himself to Gunners fans with some wholehearted displays in pre-season and Levack is confident that he will be a shrewd addition for a club that has been crying out for consistency and continuity at centre-half.
He added: “The way he plays is very conducive with the way that Arsenal like to play, and it was very fascinating the attention to detail that Arsenal put into scouting the players that they are going to sign, whether that would be artificial attention, data analysis or video analysis – it’s all very impressive.
“Edu, Mikel Arteta, and actually all the guys at Arsenal were excellent to deal with, they were consistent in their message that they were going to do all they could to get Ben, and in all fairness that was proven with the level of transfer fee they paid for Ben.”
Arsenal are due to get the 2021-22 Premier League season up and running next Friday when they make the short trip across London to newly-promoted Brentford.
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