Arsenal signs 20-year-old defender from non-league club

Posted Friday, January 06, 2017 by nbcsports.com

Arsene Wenger has made a living finding young players in relatively unknown areas. He's apparently done that again.

According to a report by BeIN Sports host Carrie Brown, Wenger confirmed that the club has signed 20-year-old Cohen Bramall from non-league club Hednesford Town. The youngster is a left-back and has joined on a $50,000 deal, according to the BBC.

Apparently, Bramall (pictured, right) has been on trial with Arsenal since December, and has impressed the scouts and executives enough to sign him on. Brown reports that Wenger told her the deal is complete and that Bramall is "an exceptional physical specimen. Wenger also reportedly said that Bramall is not ready to play in the Premier League just yet, meaning he will likely either join their U-23 side or end up out on loan.

The BBC report states that both Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday also had scouts watching Bramall before Arsenal invited him to a trial.

Bramall spent time at another non-league club Nantwich Town before moving to Hednesford. Nantwich director of football Jon Gold spoke to the BBC, saying, "He was obviously a great talent when he first came to us but the manager at the time was going with older players. That happens. Jamie Vardy was turned down by many clubs, don't forget, including even Crewe."

Bramall's story is receiving plenty of parallels to Vardy's meteoric rise from non-league play, but the two have plenty of differences as well. Bramall is still just 20 years old, while Vardy was 25 when he moved from Fleetwood Town to Leicester City.

"Obviously he has a huge amount of development and work to do," Bramall's agent Dan Chapman said. "Any player moving from part-time to professional football takes a while to adapt but in this case the jump in levels is so high. Realistically we can expect Cohen to cut his teeth in U23 football but we are confident he will break through at senior level in good time."