Tafari Moore has spent a few days on trial with FC Utrecht in the Netherlands ahead of a move after it was made clear to him that he does not have a future at Arsenal according to Dutch reports.
The 19-year-old defender, who has just been called up to the England 19 squad to replace Everton’s Callum Connolly, who pulled out due to injury, arrived at Arsenal in 2009 from QPR when he was just 12.
About his call up to the England squad for the u19 Euro finals, manager Aidy Boothroyd, said “You can imagine, just like with a senior player, it’s not very nice to tell a player that’s been with you all season that he hasn’t made the final squad.
“But that just shows the quality and high standard of the group and Tafari being Tafari, as soon as he picked the phone up he was straight on a plane and out here and is now integrated back into the group like he’d never been away.
“He has experience of Euro Finals before as part of that [U17s] team which won it two years ago and he’s a good lad so we’re really pleased to have him with us despite being disappointed that Callum has had to go back.”
But it seems very much that his days as an Arsenal player are almost at an end.
It’s not yet clear if his trial at Utrecht will result in a loan deal or a permanent one but the initial reports state he made a good impression on the manager, Erik ten Hag, and has already spent time training with the first team before leaving to join up with England.