Ben White is a player of interest to Everton, but his desire to play in central defence could make a move tricky.
It has been suggested in recent days that Everton will prioritise three positions this summer; a right-back, a centre-back and a forward.
Thoughts on potentially signing Ben White? 🤔
Arsenal right-back Ben White.
It will be a big summer for the club, especially if the Toffees qualify for a European competition.
Ben White is a player who’s been linked with Everton for a couple of months now.
He’s struggled for regular game time this season at Arsenal, and the Toffees are lurking ahead of a potential summer swoop.
The interest was reaffirmed this week, but a new update may cast doubt on Everton pulling off a move.
Everton target Ben White wants to play centre-back
TEAMtalk have provided an update about White’s situation, with the player’s exit from Arsenal this summer a distinct possibility.
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They say that Arsenal would prefer not to lose the player this summer.
But internally, it is accepted that he won’t be happy continuing with his current role and not being a regular.
The Gunners will, therefore, reluctantly hear offers for the player this summer – and Everton’s interest is again mentioned.
But there is a particularly interesting line in this report that may put Everton at a disadvantage in the race to sign White.
And that is that the player harbours long term ambitions of playing as a centre-back.
Ben White playing for Arsenal.
Photo by Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images
White has spent the majority of his time at Arsenal playing as a right-back. But he is a centre-back by trade, having played there for Brighton and Leeds.
With Everton ideally needing to shift Jake O’Brien into the middle, which is his natural position, then that would perhaps point to David Moyes wanting to use White at right-back.
Other clubs might be more willing to grant White his wish of playing in the middle, and therefore scupper Everton’s hopes of signing the player.
It’s not clear if playing in the middle would be an absolutely deal-breaker for White.
But it certainly sounds like his preference would be to play centrally and, given how strong Everton’s central defensive options are right now, that could be problematic for the Toffees.
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