Brighton insist that Ben White is not available for transfer this summer after two bids from Leeds United and interest from both Liverpool and Chelsea.
The 22-year-old had an extremely impressive season on loan at Leeds in the Championship as the Yorkshire club gained promotion to the Premier League.
Largely used as a central defender, Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa also deployed White as a defensive midfielder, and he was key to their promotion campaign in both positions.
Leeds have made two bids to sign White permanently, thought to be worth around £22m, but both have been rejected and Brighton have told them there is no point making a third offer, according to the BBC.
A third bid of £30m was expected to be coming in from the newly-promoted side, but it now seems unlikely, and interest from Liverpool and Chelsea will now be quelled as they will not be keen to spend heavily on a player not guaranteed to play.
Brighton boss Graeme Potter has always been clear that he has been looking forward to having White back at the club for next season.
‘He is contracted with us and he is on loan at Leeds,’ said Potter after the Yorkshire side gained promotion. ‘He is our player, it’s fantastic that he has had this season with Leeds.
‘Everyone won, he got great experience and Leeds got their goal of promotion.
‘We rate Ben highly, I’ve followed his career personally from when he was at Newport to Peterborough and we were aware of him at Swansea and we were trying to sign him ourselves, we like him a lot.
‘He’s a really good player and thankfully he is our player.
‘We’ll see him in pre-season and he will be part of our group. When the rest of the guys report back.
‘He’s a good player he will be competing for a place like everybody.’
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