Mikel Arteta admits he had ‘doubts’ over paying Brighton a big fee to sign Ben White in the summer over ‘concerns’ of wasting a chunk of his transfer budget, via the Arsenal website.
The Gunners paid £50m to make White the new lynchpin of the Emirates Stadium backline beside Gabriel Magalhaes in July. The Brazilian had made the move to north London a year earlier from LOSC Lille for £23m, while Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu also joined.
Arteta felt he had to refresh his defensive ranks from Hector Bellerin, David Luiz and with Bernd Leno in goal. The Spaniard left for Real Betis on loan to free space for Tomiyasu, the Brazilian departed at the end of his contract and the German has become the number two.
White had only played one season of Premier League football before Arteta sought to seal his transfer from Brighton to Arsenal. Chris Hughton only named the centre-half in one of their matchday squads in 2018/19, before Graham Potter sent him out on loan to Leeds.
A year in the Championship after half a term in League One with Peterborough proved the potential White possessed. But one, albeit impressive, top-flight term at the Amex Stadium did not remove all doubts surrounding the two-cap England star succeeding with Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta admits he had ‘doubts’ over Arsenal spending £50m to sign Ben White
Arteta knew a lucrative transfer for White to join Arsenal would carry question marks as he stepped up from playing for Brighton to being a regular at a club targeting top-four results.
The Spaniard could not guarantee how the centre-half would adapt with the change to his environment. But he has helped White to settle in, establish a presence, build momentum and seal a return to the England squad under Gareth Southgate for their March friendlies.
“You always have concerns when you pay big sums of money because, first of all, you want to protect the club’s money and investments in the best possible way,” he said. “You want to maximise it the best possible way and bring potential and capacity to develop the team.
“You want players that perform at the highest level and you always have doubts, because they have to come here, they have to integrate, they have to carry on their shoulders and if it’s the first time they’re going to do it, it’s not something they’ve already done.
“So, if they don’t have any experience or it’s something new and you have to help them to go that path, that time and try to absorb everything new that is happening the best possible way, so they can focus on getting the best out of them.”
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