Arsenal and Manchester City are reportedly keeping tabs on 16-year-old Fulham midfielder, Matt O’Riley.

O’Riley, who’s broken into Fulham’s first team this season, has caught the eye of Arsenal and City, claims the Mirror.

After making 19 appearances for the Cottagers’ youth teams last term, the 16-year-old central midfielder has now managed to make his mark in the first team, which is reportedly how he’s been noticed by some of the Premier League’s top clubs.

Breaking into Slaviša Jokanović’s senior squad is a big deal at such a young age and if he’s truly attracting attention from Premier League clubs, he must be an exciting prospect.

His manager certainly thinks so.

“This player is in the process – he’s very talented player and he makes his job good enough for his age,” Jokanović told Get West London.

“In general, the games were one of the first challenges for him in senior football, he played good against Wycombe and he moved and try to offer the quality against Bristol too.

“It’s early and his first steps, but I used a lot of young players in these games and what I said before, they’re in the process of learning and I expect he can be an important player for our club in the future.”

Since he is only 16, there’s bound to be significant room for improvement. However, if Arsenal are genuinely interested, I highly doubt they’re looking to bring him into the Gunners’ first team…

The Englishman played 171 minutes for Fulham in the League Cup during his side’s 2-0 win over Wycombe and 1-0 loss to Bristol City.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5or6e4-oiog

He played an entire 120 minutes against Portsmouth in the Checkatrade Trophy, which Fulham won 7-5 on penalties.

The creative teenager was also on the bench for the Championship club’s 1-1 draw against Cardiff.

O’Riley played for NPL Youth in Teddington before joining Fulham and while he’s an England youth international, he’s also eligible to play for both Norway and Denmark.

Manchester United have also been linked.