Everton will reportedly gazump Arsenal by offering Brighton a lot more money for Ben White.
Arsenal’s highest offer for the England defender has been a bid of £42m plus around $4m in add-ons. Brighton, however, want £50m and that seems to be exactly what the Toffees, with their new manager, Rafa Benitez at the helm, have reportedly offered.
Everton’s expected bid is said to be around £50m with £5m in add-ons.
Everton have indicated they are willing to pay the full £50m, plonking down £20m upfront and paying the other £30m over the four-years of the contract they will offer White.
The Daily Mail report in their exclusive that, “White, 23, has made it clear to Brighton that he wants to leave, as he was given a verbal assurance that the club would not stand in his way if they received a suitable offer from a top-six club when he signed a new contract last year.”
Ben White admits it’s nice to be linked with Arsenal, though he doesn’t spend much time talking about it with teammates behind the scenes.
Along with Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares, Ben White is the player most heavily linked with an Arsenal move so far this summer.
The latest reports suggested negotiations were ongoing and progressing positively, with Brighton knocking back Arsenal’s initial £40m bid but subsequently moving closer to a compromise after the Gunners raised their offer.
There’s still no deal between the two clubs, and some reports suggest Brighton are holding out for the full £50m before they’ll agree to a sale.
White is currently away with England at Euro 2020, and he spoke to talkSPORT as part of his media duties this week, responding to questions on the Arsenal speculation.
“It’s nice, it’s happened quite a lot over the last two years, there’s been a lot of noise,” White said, before answering whether he speaks to teammates about it. “Not really. You don’t know what’s true and what’s not. So there’s no real point talking about it.”
You’d imagine that even if Arsenal do manage to find an agreement with Brighton in the coming days, the move won’t be made official until England exit Euro 2020 and he has time for medicals and so on. So we might just have to remain patient for now.
Bukayo Saka and Ben White have been singing each other’s praises after seeing more of one another in training with England this month.
As Arsenal star Bukayo Saka starts to break into Gareth Southgate’s England team, fans also have one eye on the transfer market, with a heavily-rumoured link to Brighton defender Ben White.
Those fans would have enjoyed hearing Saka’s answer to a question about who has impressed him the most on England duty.
“Earlier I said I was impressed the most by Ben White,” Saka said on ITV. “Obviously I haven’t seen him a lot this season. Coming here, training with him, I’ve been impressed with him.”
That respect appears to go both ways, with White then telling the media just how well Saka has done behind the scenes.
“Watching all the boys in training, anyone could start a game and light it up, especially with Bukayo,” White told talkSPORT. “He’s been unbelievable in training. I didn’t really think he was as good as he was.
“Right foot, left foot. He can go either way. He can shoot. He’s been really good.”
If all goes well for Arsenal in negotiations with Brighton, the pair could be seeing a lot more of each other in the coming years. For now, it’s just nice to see Saka’s getting along with everyone so well. Whether that’s White or anyone else in the England squad.
They all seem to be impressed by him, which shouldn’t surprise too many Arsenal fans after we voted him our Player of the Season. We knew how good he was. Now everyone else is learning that same fact.