Benjamin White (4)

What’s funny for me is that Varane is someone we should have got and White is someone Man Utd should have got.
We’ve got a bunch of young defenders and they’ve got bunch of defenders nearing their 30s.
We add another young defender and they add another defender nearing his 30s.
Man Utd will have to enter the market for a CB again next year or the year after.
Great logic. Man Utd simply can’t waste another year putting the pressure on.

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Reckon Ben White will easily prove the better deal, Varane doesn’t look like the player he was once hyped to be, at least during the Euros he didn’t.

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Varane is pretty shit mate I have no worries about this one. He’s just never turned out to be the defender he was meant to be like @Starboy pointed out.

White has an upside whereas with Varane you feel like he’s missed the boat. He’s declined year on year and it’s not like he’s been playing with shit defenders or under shit coaches for that to make sense.

He was dire at the Euros.

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Wonder who gets it.

The way I see it is, Ben White is on the way up while Varane is on his way down. I don’t particularly rate Varane, always seemed like he needed Ramos to hold his hand.

Ben White will have more resale value as well. Though we are Arsenal, so we’d probably sell him for 8p.

I think you’re right that White will have more resale value, unless we pay him 200k a week and he turns into Willian.
So he is probably better value, although Varane has played at the top level alongside elite players, so the pressure at Man U shouldn’t be a problem for him.

But I’m not that convinced with White and if he’ll be a success here, but that’s more down to our manager rather than the player.

Ben White is younger, less experienced but has great potential. Varane is an excellent CB, but will need to adapt to the PL. Ben White played well last season and was excellent for Leeds. I think he can come in a do a job for us straight away. I don’t see him taking too long to adapt and Gabriel is a very similar player to him. I think both are good signings and what each respective club need at the time.

We are building a young squad for the future. Utd are looking to challenge City for the title this season and take a big step forward. It will be interesting to see how Varane adapts to the pace of the PL,

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We don’t know if Ben White will be aerially exploited or whether some other defensive fundamental weakness might be exposed. Sometimes it comes down to the CB pairing and the two players complementing each other and making up a little for whatever little weakness the other player has.

Time will tell, and I am.on the optimistic side with this, but we do need to remember that Ben White’s rep is largely built around how he is on the ball rather than defensive fundamentals.

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Varane on the law of probability unless White becomes very very good, Varane is only just entering his prime as far as CB ages go generally, won everything and been part of an elite Real Madrid defence for some time.

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Interesting to see people starting to talk up Ben White…

Ben Fucking White… or Fucking Ben White… whatever you name him

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I don’t think this is really true about CB ages, at least in the Premier League.

If you look at the top PL CBs of the last 20 years, most of them played their best football between 24-30. Rio, Vidic, Sol, Kompany, even Terry who admittedly had some good years in his 30s but was a real beast on those 2000s Chelsea teams.

IMO, both Maguire and Varane are really late prime players as guys turning 29 next spring. They probably have three years left at top level, hopefully United piss it away by having Ole manage them for most of that time.

Varane is athletically gifted though, so even if that slows down a touch I think he’ll be fine.

I’m not saying it’s a sure fire thing but probability suggests Varane will be the better signing, Arsenal and English people are probably the very few that would say otherwise here.

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Incredible isn’t it. Choosing a guy who has won been part of just 9 top flight wins his entire life soon to be 24. Over a 4xcl winner World Cup winner.

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People betting against Varane over the next 5 years is nuts.

White needs to show he’s not the English Mustafi at this level before people start hyping him.

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Varane has been on the slide for long enough for me to believe he’s just not really going to get much better.

The guy was a bumbling idiot at times for Madrid last season. Who remembers his nightmare double error against Manchester City? The torrid time he had against Shakhtar? In general, he was very poor for Real Madrid and then the Euros was the icing on the cake.

He may well turn it over and start smashing it again but I’m willing to bet that Varane is just another guy who never got better and peaked too early.

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This is a huge fee for a Brighton defender in a cash strapped corona virus era market. I’m hoping he’ll turn out to be more VVD than Mustafi but I’ve got no idea which at this point in time.

Given our history in the transfer market in the last 10 years I can’t say I’m feeling too confident. Fingers crossed he’s the next big thing.

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@SRCJJ knows his defenders

I will back him :joy:

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How much of Varane did you watch in La Liga over the last 2 seasons ?

I’ll say this Varane has been an integral part of a Real Madrid team that conceded 53 goals in 76 matches in La Liga over the past 2 seasons.

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Shaw Maguire Varane Bisaka

Is about as strong back line as you can get.

Tierney Gabriel White Bellerin

Looks shaky as fuck, especially since three of them are sick notes.

Love myself a defender who’s technically sound and good on the ball. Quite excited to see him in Arsenal’s colors tbh.

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