The word ‘starlet’ is becoming a footballing cliché nowadays. However, according to Alan Nixon writing in The Sun, Watford have beaten fellow Londoners Arsenal and Spurs to League Two starlet Ben Wilmot.
On Saturday morning, here at the72 we brought you news that Wilmot had been withdrawn from the Stevenage side to face Newport County in League Two at the weekend. In this article Arsenal and Spurs were said to be dual-favourites with the North London sides set to slug it out toe-to-toe for his signature.
On the club’s official website, Stevenage chairman Phil Wallace says of the upcoming switch, “Ben came back from International Duty with England last week and we have had developments that suggest a deal will be agreed shortly for him to move when the window opens.”
However, a cautionary note from Duncan Wright, whose Sun article formed the basis of The72’s report, proved to be bang on the money. Wright said, that Arsenal and Spurs should be wary of Watford who’d contacted Stevenage over Wilmot.
Wright said what could be “important” to the Hornets chances of buzzing in and stealing the youngster away from Spurs and Arsenal is they “would offer him an easier path into regular first team football.”
That has proven to be the case with Nixon reporting earlier that “Watford have beaten Arsenal and Spurs in the race to sign highly-rated England kid Ben Wilmot from Stevenage.” This news from Nixon comes alongside confirmation of the value of the deal – a deal that journalist Nixon says is worth £1.5 million to the League Two side.
Wilmot has featured in just ten games for Stevenage this season in League Two, with his other five appearances since promotion from the youth set-up coming in this season’s FA Cup (three appearances) and Carabao Cup (two appearances) competitions.
Now it seems that his lower league experience will stop at those ten games, with Watford’s capture of him giving the teenager the best opportunity to forge a career at a higher level – a level that hopefully will develop his England chances further.
