I was sceptical when we signed Ben White.

I felt there wasn’t much evidence to justify such a big investment from the club.

I didn’t truly know what to expect from a player whose young career saw him play at right centre-back in a back-three, right-back and defensive midfielder - but not much at centre-back in a back-four, which would have been his position at the Arsenal.

When I first saw him play, I really liked his front-footed approach and his willingness to win the ball back high on the pitch and move forward at every chance, although I was aware of the risks of such an approach and still wounded by the Mustafi years.

One thing is being proactive and audacious, another thing is to do that efficiently and consistently, something that very few Arsenal defenders of the past twenty years were able or willing to do.  

Over the weeks, he won me over with his excellent reading of the game, his assertiveness, and his ability with the ball, which is probably the flashiest quality of his at first sight, but then I was more and more impressed by his unique blend of aggressiveness and composure, a trait that very few defenders can bear.

I was fortunate enough to watch some of the finest defenders of the past thirty years and they all had one thing in common: they were all very aggressive, very physical yet they never transmitted the feeling of rushing their decisions.

Whether they were playing for The Arsenal or elsewhere in Europe, those defenders had their unique thing of being very elegant yet very rough - very sharp, yet clean in their tackles, no matter how strong they were.  

There is this thing about Ben White that makes you enjoy his intensity without much fear, sometimes even with anticipation.

I had the same feeling watching Tony Adams, Lilian Thuram, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi, to name a few, because I somehow knew that if they went for a lunge, they wouldn’t miss.

I wasn’t hoping that they would take the ball away from their opponent, I knew that they would.

Ben White belongs to that category of fierce but composed defenders that can make their presence felt without endangering those around them, which is very precious and is becoming very rare.  

Can one be round but edgy?

Ben White can

This article by Clock End Italia first appeared in the print version of the Gooner Fanzine earlier this season. 

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