The Plummer brothers are hugely popular on Channel 4 series Gogglebox and one of them was a very promising player in the mid noughties with interest from three Premier League clubs
Tristan Plummer of England in action during the FA England U17 International Tournament match between England U17 and USA U17 at The Recreation Ground on September 1, 2006 in Aldershot, England
Tristan Plummer playing for England(Image: Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
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Arsenal and Chelsea lock horns on Wednesday evening in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. The Gunners are flying at the moment while Chelsea are looking to find consistent form under new boss Liam Rosenior.
One man who could be watching on Wednesday evening is Gogglebox star Tristan Plummer, who stars on TV alongside brothers Tremaine and Twaine. What some Gogglebox viewers may not know is that Tristan was once wanted by three Premier League clubs, including Arsenal and Chelsea.
As a teenager, Plummer was an exciting prospect, plying his trade for Bristol City's youth academy. At only 15, he was playing in the FA Youth Cup and City hid him from Chelsea scouts after the game through fear of him being snapped up.
"I made my FA Youth Cup debut, aged 14 or 15," he said to Bristol Live. "And after they didn't make me go out straight after the game because there were a few Chelsea scouts watching the game. I ended up doing well in that game and the scouts started coming along and a few England scouts were there too."
Despite the fact he hadn't yet made his senior debut for City, Arsenal made an approach to the Robins about acquiring his signature. This would've been a hugely promising moment for Plummer, with the senior Arsenal team having gone invincible only a season before.
Shortly before turning 17 in 2007, City had plans to sign him to his first professional contract but following interest from Premier League clubs Everton and Arsenal, this made Plummer reconsider his options.
He continued: "As a 17-year-old growing up from where I was from and having to make those decisions, it was pretty difficult. I could have gone to two Premier League teams, Everton and Arsenal were interested in me. One of the old Everton coaches, Tony Fawthrop was Bristol City's academy director so he knew about me.
"I remember being in my house and someone was running across with a newspaper and they were like 'you're in the newspaper!' I was like what? 'Plummer wanted by Arsenal' and that - I was like, 'wow'.
"The club said Arsenal were talking about you but City shut that down straight away. The selling price was ridiculous saying they wanted a million or two million for me at the age of 17 but all they only would have had to pay was the compensation because I hadn't signed the contract.
"That scared me a bit because I thought if I see out my scholarship and then I can't get it agreed, then I don't have a club."
The Plummer brothers from Gogglebox
The Plummer brothers from Bristol are stars of television and one of them used to play high-level football(Image: Channel 4)
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Arsenal ended up signing Southampton's Theo Walcott instead because they weren't willing to meet City's asking price for Plummer. Despite this, his career continued to progress and in 2007 he was called up to play for England at the under-17 European Championships. He was on the bench in the final against Spain, with Barcelona wonderkid Bojan bagging the winning goal.
However, things didn't quite work out for Plummer, who returned to the non-league circuit in 2010 after a string of loans and appearances on the City bench. He would never make an official senior appearance for the Robins despite his efforts.
Speaking about his football journey and subsequent career change, Plummer insists he doesn't regret anything: "I don't regret it because I have two beautiful kids now. Maybe if I moved away, I wouldn't have had them and now I'm doing other things that I enjoy doing.
"Maybe I could have been in a better position financially but at the end of the day my happiness is more important, I'm happy and I came to terms with that ages ago. I hold no grudge or resentment towards the manager or club.
"Playing for the academy was the best time of my life. The thing I loved most with City in general, I remember waking up and just having a bus card, life wasn't... I was getting paid £45 a week, having a bus card, I could go anywhere."