Alex Iwobi has revealed to Match of the Day Magazine that he and Chuba Akpom trained for both West Ham and Arsenal for three years.

From the ages of six to nine, when footballers are allowed to sign a contract, apparently Arsenal and West Ham wanted to sign the youngsters, which resulted in them training with both clubs.

Iwobi revealed that he picked Arsenal because they were the bigger club. Standard.

“Arsenal and West Ham were interested in me and Chuba, so we were training with both clubs for three years, because we were scouted at six and you can’t sign until you’re nine,” the forward said.

“I decided to sign for Arsenal because I supported them back then and I always saw them as the bigger club – no disrespect to West Ham!”

Presumably, Akpom also made the same decision based on this reasoning, unless he just decided to follow his pal to north London.

It goes to show how important those early decisions in a player’s life can be. If a young Iwobi, potentially with the help of his family, hadn’t chosen Arsenal then he could be a very different player now.

Fortunately, the 20-year-old obviously chose the team he supported and has since risen through the ranks to be where he is today: excelling with Arsenal’s first team.