Ipswich Town lead race for 17yo Arsenal trialist | OneFootball

Recent Arsenal trialist Mason Cotcher appears set to complete a move elsewhere, holding a trial with Ipswich Town this week.

Earlier this season, 17-year-old Mason Cotcher appeared to be in line for a move to Arsenal, spending time on trial with the Gunners.

The trial began in late October, with Cotcher making an unexpected appearance for the Arsenal u18s against Middlesbrough in the u18 Premier League Cup.

As the trial progressed, Cotcher got a chance to feature in a couple of u18 Premier League games, scoring once and assisting once in his two starts against Crystal Palace and Norwich City.

Before the end of November, Cotcher had also spent time training with the Arsenal first team. But that month in north London didn’t lead to a contract with the club.

Instead, Cotcher spent time with Manchester United in January, playing against Leeds United, before having a go with Leeds themselves.

Cotcher scored a couple of goals for the Leeds u18s and played 45 minutes for their u21s, but he’s now on a trial with Ipswich Town.

The East Anglian Daily Times report that Cotcher was the trialist who scored for the Ipswich Town u21s against Wigan Athletic at Portman Road on Tuesday.

It might be surprising to see a player playing on trial with so many different clubs, particularly given he seems to have done quite well with a few of them.

Other than in his 28 minutes for Manchester United, Cotcher has scored goals in all of his trials so far.

Perhaps the problem is that Cotcher’s former side Sunderland will be owed a compensation fee, which could go to a tribunal if the signing club can’t agree a fair payment.

Sunderland did offer Cotcher a professional deal, so given he’s a youth player, they’re due compensation for his transfer. It’s not the same as with first-team players, where you can move around as a free agent with no compensation once your contract is up.

So Cotcher doesn’t just have to impress, he has to do enough to prove he’s worth the fee Sunderland want. He’ll hope he’s finally close to doing that with Championship promotion hopefuls Ipswich.