Arsenal have signed Jay Beckford from Leyton Orient.

Announced on the Leyont Orient official site, the club revealed that Arsenal will pay a ‘substantial‘ amount of money for the 15-year-old as the player was subject to the Elite Player Performance Programme compensation agreement.

Speaking about the deal, the director of the O’s Academy, Andy Edwards, said

“He has been a credit to the club all the time he has been here.

“We are disappointed to lose him. We wish him all the best at Arsenal.

“We have got some exceptional players in our academy of which Jay is one.

“Arsenal have met the valuation which is linked to the EPPP guidelines and unfortunately we lose him.

“The club have received a sum of money which is quite substantial should he go on and become successful there.

“We are doing a good job, and as part of that sometimes you are going to lose your better players, but we still think we have got a lot of good players in our system who have got the potential to come through and play in the first team.”

Beckford has been hailed as a ‘sensation‘ but it will be some time before we see him near the first team, if we ever do.

Talent at 15 is rarely an indicator of how far a player will go in his professional career, but it’s great to see such a promising prospect join the club and we all look forward to seeing him develop with the youth teams.