20-year-old Aaron Eyoma has joined Derby County, after leaving Arsenal on a free transfer and impressing on trial with the Rams.

Eyoma left Arsenal at the end of June, after the club included him on their official list of released players submitted to the Premier League. He’d struggled for game time with the u23s, only playing six matches in 2017/18, before adding a couple more for Derby on trial.

Now he’s joining the club on a permanent basis, with Derby announcing he’s signed a one-year deal. He’s expected to play predominantly with the u23s at first this season.

Clearly Eyoma played well in those trial matches in April, but he admitted to feeling the pressure a little, given it was his big chance to secure the transfer.

“There was a lot of pressure on those games, but I felt I dealt with it well,” he said. We lost the first game, which was against Tottenham, but then we beat West Ham. That was a very good game and that win proved to be the difference in keep Derby up in the end. I was really pleased to be part of that.”

Despite defeat to Tottenham, Eyoma did manage to bag an assist in that match, so clearly he stepped up his game individually against Arsenal’s North London rivals.

The wide-player turned down interest from a number of other Championship and League 1 clubs to join Derby, calling it “an opportunity that I couldn’t miss”. It could turn out to be a very wise decision if he makes it into the first team, and the club end up finally achieving the promotion they seem to get so close to every year.

Good luck this year, Aaron!