Arsenal’s first January signing is Cohen Bramall…who?

Arsenal’s first signing of the January transfer window is Cohen Bramall. He’s not from La Liga, the Bundesliga or Serie A but comes from Hednesford Town in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League

It’s that time of year again when speculations and rumors are flying. Of course I’m talking about the January transfer window.

Some of the current chatters includes West Ham’s pursuit of Chelsea forward Michy Batshuayi and Brentford striker Scott Hogan. There’s also talk that Stoke are targeting West Brom’s Saido Berahino.

I often find out about transfer gossip on my Twitter feed and today proved no different.

Instead of a bunch of insipid tweets from Donald Trump, I saw that many Arsenal fans on my time line were asking the same question, “who the hell is Cohen Bramall?”

The answer is that Arsenal hope to have found the next Jamie Vardy in Cohen Bramall.

The 20-year-old attacking left-back was signed for £40,000 from non-league Hednesford Town.

Bramall had a trial period with Crystal Palace in November where he made one appearance. He also was involved with two non-competitive matches for Sheffield Wednesday.

He has scored once for Hednesford in 26 appearances this season and became a bit of a You Tube sensation for a “rabona” assist on a goal last September versus Frickley Athletic.

Jamie Vardy proved that Fairy Tales can come true

Bramall’s speed is what caught the attention of Arsenal. The English youngster ran track initially before playing for a number of non-league clubs throughout England.

By now everyone is familiar with Jamie Vardy’s fairy-tale story of last season. Vardy rose through the ranks of bottom tier clubs while working at a carbon fiber factory. He his now playing in the Champions League against Europe’s best as part of Premier League champions Leicester City.

Arsenal are hoping that Bramall will follow in Vardy’s footsteps.

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Bramall had been working in a Bentley factory fitting radiators while playing for Hednesford Town. He had just been laid off from this job when he got the call from Arsenal.

Bramall was beyond excited to get the news. When asked his reaction by Sky Sports, he stated:

"When they told me I was thinking I needed to sort something else quick, I needed more money coming in. I was driving home to get my things together for a trial at Shrewsbury Town when Lee (his agent Lee Payne) called. I thought it was a wind-up, I was going mad, but as soon as he told me he was serious I grabbed all my stuff and headed straight down to London."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is hoping that the youngster will be able to fight for a spot on the first team roster in the future.

Bramall trained with the Arsenal first team last week and will now be a part of the Gunners’ Under-23 squad. The official announcement is posted today on Arsenal’s website.