Arsenal ignored club legend’s advice to sign Luke Shaw

The Gunners ended up getting Kieran Tierney, a few seasons later.

Luke Shaw's struggles at Manchester United have been well documented but he is enjoying the best season of his career at Old Trafford. The left-back appears to have put those tough times behind him and has clearly been spurred on by the arrival of Alex Telles from Porto. Arsenal apparently ignored the advice of Gunners legend Martin Keown to sign the left-back long before he was on United's radar. 10 years ago, Keown was massively impressed by the performance of a teenage Shaw in a youth game and recommended an Arsenal scout to sign him up immediately. After backing Shaw for an England recall in his Daily Mail column, Keown wrote:

"I first watched him as a 16-year-old playing on a training pitch for Southampton against Reading. In the first 10 seconds, he whipped a ball across the box with such power and precision that I just thought, ‘Wow’. I was standing next to an Arsenal scout and I immediately said, ‘You’ve got to sign him.’ "Rarely had I seen a 16-year-old play with such certainty. In recent years he lost that from his game but it is coming back. This summer Jose Mourinho has given him his support and as a result Shaw has flourished. "If Shaw keeps getting down that wing and keeps making things happen, then there is no reason why he could be England’s equivalent of Benjamin Mendy for Manchester City."

Shaw ended up proving himself to be a revelation for Southampton before convincing the Red Devils to commit him to a four-year contract for a reported £30 million in 2014. Having struggled for playing time under Jose Mourinho in recent seasons, the 25-year-old has started each of United's three Premier League games this term and even scored the deciding goal in his side's only win so far. *(Updated from story first published in January 2018)

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