Arsenal have reached an agreement to sign a Liverpool striker
Arsenal summer has not been limited to first-team business. The club have been working through a separate strategy this window, one aimed at strengthening the age groups below Mikel Arteta’s senior squad.
Several additions have already been confirmed at academy level, part of a deliberate push to bring in the country’s most promising teenage talent.
That plan has now produced its most significant capture yet, and it comes at a direct rival’s expense.
Arsenal have reached an agreement to sign Liverpool striker Vincent Joseph, with the two clubs still to determine the financial compensation involved.
The 16-year-old had been part of Liverpool’s academy since the pre-academy stage but chose not to sign scholarship terms at Anfield after his schoolboy registration expired this summer.
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Chelsea and Manchester United had also shown interest before Joseph settled on a move to north London.
Joseph scored eight goals in nine appearances for England’s Under-16 side. He also made two appearances for Liverpool’s Under-18 Premier League team last season, scoring a brace on his final outing, a 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest.
Primarily an attacking midfielder earlier in his development, Joseph has spent the last 18 months playing mainly as a centre-forward.
Because he is under 24 and has not signed a first professional contract, any compensation owed to Liverpool would normally be settled between the clubs [Arsenal], with an independent tribunal deciding the fee if no agreement is reached.
The Professional Football Compensation Committee weighs factors including the player’s age, playing record, time spent at his previous club, and the terms offered by both sides when it rules on such cases.
A recent precedent gives some indication of the numbers involved. Isaac Moran’s move from Liverpool to Newcastle last summer, also completed after he turned down a scholarship, resulted in an initial seven-figure fee that could rise to £5 million.
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Rio Ngumoha’s switch from Chelsea to Liverpool in 2024 was valued at an initial £2.8 million, rising to a potential £6.8 million.
Joseph’s arrival forms part of a broader recruitment drive. Arsenal have also agreed a deal for Crystal Palace forward Mylo Bernard, another Under-16 England international, and are working to complete the signing of Cardiff City’s Axel Donczew, who became the youngest player in the Championship club’s history last October. Defender Elijah Upson has already joined after leaving Tottenham Hotspur.
The push follows a difficult 2025-26 season for Arsenal’s youth sides.
The Under-21s were eliminated from the Premier League 2 play-offs and knocked out of the EFL Trophy at the group stage, while the Under-18s exited the FA Youth Cup in the last 32 and the Under-19s fell at the group stage of the UEFA Youth League.