Arsenal Set to Sign Liverpool Starlet Vincent Joseph

Liverpool have spent years raiding other British academies for the best young talent. Now one of their biggest rivals is about to return the favour.

From Harvey Elliott to Ben Doak, Trey Nyoni to Rio Ngumoha, Liverpool have built a reputation for spotting teenage standouts and tempting them to Anfield. That conveyor belt has been a point of pride for the club’s academy hierarchy.

This time, though, they’re the ones braced to lose a gem.

Arsenal strike agreement for Vincent Joseph

According to The Athletic, Arsenal have reached an agreement with Liverpool academy striker Vincent Joseph over a move to north London, with the 16-year-old ready to swap Kirkby for Hale End.

The two clubs are now in talks over a compensation package. If they fail to settle on a fee, a tribunal will step in and set the amount owed to Liverpool, as is standard when a player under 24 moves before signing a first professional deal, or at the end of their initial professional terms.

Joseph did not sign scholarship terms with Liverpool this summer after his schoolboy registration expired, opening the door for Arsenal to pounce.

For Liverpool, it’s a painful opening.

Prolific record at youth level

The frustration is easy to understand. Joseph’s numbers hint at a serious prospect.

He hit three goals in just two appearances in the Under-18 Premier League last season, a sharp return in limited minutes. On the international stage, he has been just as ruthless: eight goals in nine caps for England under-16s, including a hat-trick against the Netherlands under-16s last December, as recorded by Transfermarkt.

Those are the sort of figures that make academy coaches sit up. They also make losing him sting that bit more.

Liverpool have tied down other youngsters, such as Lucas Clarke, on professional terms, moving quickly to secure their futures. With Joseph, that push has not borne fruit. Instead, he looks set to pull on an Arsenal shirt.

Tables turned on Liverpool

There is a certain symmetry to the move. Liverpool recently swooped for Rio Ngumoha from Chelsea shortly after his 16th birthday, with a tribunal ultimately deciding the fee. Now Arsenal are on the verge of doing the same to them with Joseph.

For Liverpool’s academy staff and supporters, watching a highly rated forward walk away to a direct domestic rival will feel like a step backwards in a department they’ve carefully built up.

For Arsenal, it’s an opportunity. A chance to add a prolific, England youth international to a growing stable of young attackers and to land a small psychological blow on a club they expect to be jostling with at the top of English football for years to come.

The tribunal, if required, will put a number on Joseph’s value. His development in north London will reveal whether Arsenal have simply won a tug-of-war – or secured one of the next big forwards to come out of the English academy system.