Non-league 17-year-old Tyger Smalls will spend time on trial with the Arsenal academy, as he aims to make the step up into professional football.

The Telegraph claim Arsenal are monitoring Smalls, who previously played for the Tottenham Hotspur academy. He’ll spend time on trial with Per Mertesacker’s set-up as the Gunners consider bringing him in.

Most recently, the teenager made the move from Haverhill Rovers to Saffron Walden Town. They’re the league leaders in the Essex Senior Football League – the ninth tier of English football.

He’s already off the mark with his new club, scoring a couple of goals in his first month.

According to a report in the Newmarket Journal, Smalls left Spurs for reasons unrelated to football. In three seasons with the team at youth level, he scored almost 300 goals.

Smalls also recently played in a friendly game against Crystal Palace u23s. He won and scored a penalty, and he hopes his performance in that game carries some weight because it was against a Premier League academy side.

Arsenal have history signing non-league players, bringing in Cohen Bramall a few years ago. Bramall was a bit older than Smalls is now, and unfortunately didn’t make it past the u23s in North London.

All the same, Bramall is now at Football League club Colchester United. He even helped them knock Tottenham Hotspur out of the League Cup in September. Perhaps Smalls could do one better by getting one over on his former club with Arsenal.