‘Phenomenal’: Ferguson lauds £14m player Arsenal failed to sign

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Arsenal supporters have probably forgotten all about Aaron Hickey – and for good reason.

The Gunners wound up signing Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City this past summer and the Ukraine international has been a revelation under Mikel Arteta.

But before him, Arsenal were linked to a different left-back in the form of Hickey.

And although nobody affiliated with the Emirates Stadium outfit will be regretting not signing him at the moment, based on how excellent Zinchenko has been, Hickey could also prove a stunning player in the long term.

According to The Scotsman in June, Arsenal were close to signing the 20-year-old Scotland international who instead wound up joining Brentford in a £14 million deal [Romano].

The Bees’ defender impressed for his country during the international break and Barry Ferguson, speaking to the Go Radio Football Show, has predicted that the youngster – who played at right-back for Scots – will go on to become even better than Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson as far as Scottish left-backs go.

He said: “I thought young Aaron Hickey at right-back was phenomenal. I think he could be better than both of them [Tierney and Robertson]. I really rate Andy Robertson and you know what I think about Kieran Tierney but if he keeps progressing in this manner, I think he could play at the highest level in the game.”

That’s quite a prediction from Ferguson, to be fair.

Tierney and Robertson are two of the best left-backs in the whole Premier League and the fact that they’re both Scottish points to something of an anomaly.

But if Ferguson is right and yet another left-back raised north of the border is the next big thing, surpassing even the Arsenal and Liverpool players, well that’s something else entirely and it’ll be fascinating to see how he develops.