by Lewis Ambrose

England international and new Liverpool signing Nathaniel Clyne’s career could have turned out very different if only Arsenal had not rejected him.

On Monday Liverpool completed a deal to take Southampton right-back Clyne to Anfield for £12.5M, but he could have been an Arsenal player. A young winger, Clyne thought he had impressed during a trial game but was rejected.

“When he was 10 I sent him up to Arsenal for a trial,” Scott Steadman – his youth coach from Brixton – told the Guardian last year.

“He came back and told me he’d scored four, but Arsenal reckoned he was too small.”

Well, who am I to judge? I wasn’t there and I have no real place to comment on whether or not the scout made the right call. Clyne is now a defender but was judged as a right-back as a 10 year old, and these things happen all the time.

“I still remind them of that when their scouts come down: we sent you Nat and now you’d pay a lot of money for him.”

Well, Liverpool would. Which isn’t the highest endorsement of talent when you look at their business over recent years.

Arsenal, on the other hand, have Héctor Bellerín.

Looks like things turned out ok for everyone involved.