It has been revealed that Arsenal became interested in obscure young left-back Cohen Bramall with assistance from sports lawyer Dan Chapman.

Arsenal are set to complete the first signing of the current January transfer window by making a swoop for Hednesford Town youngster Bramall and it would be fair to state that not many Gunners' fans would have been aware of the youngster prior to the transfer talk.

A big Premier League side such as Arsenal signing such a player from non-league certainly came as a surprise to many and now in an exclusive interview, Chapman has revealed how he helped the North London giants discover the promising defender.

Chapman told the Daily Star: “My colleague Lee Payne and I went to watch Hednesford play away very early on this season.

“We were there to watch a player from the home team. In our business we get intelligence from all manner of sources, and often it can be very good or it can be very wrong.

“I'll be honest, 99 times out of 100 I go to games and end up leaving at half-time, depressed. You are left to drive four hours home reflecting on another wasted trip - but there's that odd time where you see someone and that's what it's all about.

“It was at this game where we first saw Cohen live. We saw him play again and thought 'this lad has got something' - but there are many players who can shine once or twice.

“A very trusted scout we work with watched him a lot for us and a pattern started to emerge – we knew we had something a little special.

“When we first saw him play we thought he reminded us of a young Ashley Cole.

“He had pace, he's a good size, he could bomb up and down and he could cross. He has natural flair and technique, which has never been coached. He had got an awful lot of good attributes."