Ben White has been hailed as an example to youngsters for his response to being let go by Southampton.

The Albion defender faces the club who released him at 16 for the first time at the Amex tonight (8pm, Sky Sports).

Head coach Graham Potter is ready for plenty of transfer speculation regarding White, who was snapped up by the Seagulls’ academy when it became clear there was no deal for him at Saints.

Potter said: “It’s part of our life. Sometimes you get the knock backs and you get rejection and you get setbacks failures, whatever you want to call it.

“It’s how you respond really, that’s the most important thing.

“I think it’s a lesson to every player because there will be lots of players at age 16 level getting released from clubs and it’s important to put things into perspective, to try to analyse the situation as clearly and fairly as you can.

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“He’s quite a level-headed guy, he’s an intelligent guy.

“He has taken a path from various loan moves that has allowed him to play football, has allowed him to have all those things – setbacks, failures, mistakes, good times, bad times, all that stuff that you need to do.”

White will be linked with Premier League clubs as we head towards the January transfer window.

Potter says his range of attributes make that no surprise, although albion have no intention to sell.

He said: “I think it’s his age, his ability to defend with big space behind him, which isn’t so easy to do.

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“He can pass the ball, he has got a range of pass, very athletic, brave.

“He has got a lot of attributes that are that are certainly very useful in the Premier League and it’s no surprise that there’s noise around him.”