Ben White’s Valuation?

12-15m is a fair price for a player whos had one good season in championship especially at this time when teams are going to be short of money. Unfortunately there are teams with bigger wallets than us who would pay a lot more. Maybe we would pay more but is it good value?

20-25 sounds about right (normally).

Could see Brighton asking for 30 mill
if the interest in him builds more.

Agree with LDL here. I think if we pay over £20million we've been ripped off.

Before he arrived at Leeds, he had 1 season in L2 and half season in L1. He's had one very impressive Championship season but it's not worth £20million +. Look at Aston Villa, they signed Mings on a permanent and their fans were buzzing, a year later and lots of them are questioning that.

Maybe he will go on to be a top player. But as of now, he's had one season with the best team in the league and really over 46 games didn't have a whole lot of 'defending' to do compared to what he will in the PL as we were so dominant. How will he do up against strikers like Ings, Vardy, Aubemaygne, Aguero, Firmino? What about against a team like Burnley with Wood and Barnes jumping into him?

Still very far off being a £20-35million player IMO.

I agree with you Best, and LDL.

Trouble is, it's not whether he's a 20-25 mill player
in talent, development, age etc. It's more about the reality of what he'll actually sell for and what Brighton
will hold out for (assuming they sell him).

Would love to know if MB feels as strongly about
retaining BW as a lot of fans do? Or if he's already
moved on to BW's replacement?

I'd think the valuation would be set by Brighton and agreed to by the buying club!..

It could even depend on a bidding war if clubs think he's what they need and are prepared to pay more!..

A reason why some go well over what they're worth!..

How feasible is that a C/L club buys him for silly money and then loans him out to us ?

comment by Best Fans - ¡Leeds Carajo! (U2196)
posted 2 hours, 56 minutes ago
Agree with LDL here. I think if we pay over £20million we've been ripped off.

Before he arrived at Leeds, he had 1 season in L2 and half season in L1. He's had one very impressive Championship season but it's not worth £20million +. Look at Aston Villa, they signed Mings on a permanent and their fans were buzzing, a year later and lots of them are questioning that.

Maybe he will go on to be a top player. But as of now, he's had one season with the best team in the league and really over 46 games didn't have a whole lot of 'defending' to do compared to what he will in the PL as we were so dominant. How will he do up against strikers like Ings, Vardy, Aubemaygne, Aguero, Firmino? What about against a team like Burnley with Wood and Barnes jumping into him?

Still very far off being a £20-35million player IMO.
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I don't think Bielsa is concerned with the money aspect. He will say to Orta, 'White knows how to play for me, he fits in with what we do and he can only get better. Buy him.'
The only question, then, is not the market value, but his value to LUFC. We conceded 15 fewer goals this season. Anyone can see that White made a significant contribution to that improvement. That could be the difference between staying up and going down. And how much is that worth?

Ake is a decent gage but I would look more to Brighton’s own defensive signing last year told Adam Webster for 20m from Bristol City.

Not sure I had even heard of him but it felt a lot. Similar age to White but suppose we don’t know how much in involved in add ins.

White is 22, ball playing but only had a few big seasons and neither in the PL. I reckon if they spent 20m on Webster, realistically looking at 25 to 28m.

Obviously if a bidding war emerges possibly up to 35m. Most clubs should be after him. Would be a great fit at Arsenal

Based on experience and performances alone he’s probably worth around £15m. Lots of potential but no proof he can do it over a significant amount of games at the top level. I think everyone will be confident he will but not knowing has to be taken into account.

His value gets exaggerated massively by other factors though. We are in a period of transition in football in which centre halves have to have very different skill sets to what they used to and the players are still catching up. So centre backs that can play in the modern way are few and far between. On top of this the top clubs in England, with the exception of Liverpool, all are having problems with their centre backs. So is the England National side. These two factors are clearly related.

With the scarcity of centre backs capable of playing out from the back and the urgency of so many clubs requiring a centre back means that missing out in the signing of a young prospect could be very costly.

I can see clubs being prepared to gamble up to £35m for him. I really hope that doesn’t happen and we can sign for £20-£25m though

As one previous comment points out, it’s about Ben White’s value to Leeds United in the end. If Bielsa is set on having him signed up, then realistically I think we will end up paying even £35 million....£10-15 million over his value.