Arsenal only loaned one youngster out in the January transfer window, but it was a significant deal, with Emile Smith Rowe joining RB Leipzig for the remainder of the campaign.
The 18-year-old, who has struggled with injuries in recent months, will hope to receive much playing time in the Bundesliga as he looks to improve even further.
A positive that Smith Rowe can take from this situation is that it isn’t unchartered territory for an Arsenal youngster, with Reiss Nelson also currently on loan in the Bundesliga at Hoffenheim.
Nelson has made an excellent impact for his temporary side, scoring six goals in 13 Bundesliga matches, while he has also gained Champions League experience.
There have been some difficult moments for Nelson to endure, too, as he has found himself left out of the side on several occasions and has had to cope with an injury in recent weeks.
Nelson and Smith Rowe could face each other when their loan teams meet later this month and it would certainly be an intriguing battle between two of the most exciting prospects to have emerged from the club’s Hale End academy in recent years.
Both players signed scholarship terms in 2016, and, while Nelson’s breakthrough into the first-team at Arsenal came much earlier, Smith Rowe is also a superb talent.
Assessing how Nelson has performed so far this season would certainly give Smith Rowe much inspiration to succeed. Nelson has seized most of the opportunities that have been afforded to him as he has played without fear.
Smith Rowe is cut very much from the same cloth, with his penchant for gliding past opponents a key asset. He may not be exactly the same type of player as Nelson, but they both possess a desire to constantly improve and make an impact.
If all goes well then there is a chance that Nelson and Smith Rowe could go from being opponents in the Bundesliga this campaign to both being part of the Arsenal first-team squad next season.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Leipzig are 4th in the league and just won 3-0 last night. Not quite sure how Smith-Rowe is gonna get in the team straight away, unless they’ll use him as an impact sub. Either Leipzig made assurances about his playing time before the move was sanctioned, or he should have joined a different Bundesliga team that will give him 90 minutes every week. Smith-Rowe, Torreira, Guendouzi, Nelson; that could be a phenomenal midfield for years to come.
We need to strengthen our squad in so many areas, and it doesn’t look like we have much money available, getting both of these lads into the first team next season would allow us to allocate money to strengthen elsewhere. Cech – Retired Lichtsteiner – out of contract Monreal – I love him, but I’m not sure at 33 we could rely on him physically if anything happened to Kolasinac medium/long term Welbeck- out of contract Rambo – out of contract Ozil – I doubt we’ll get a fee, but clearly finished at the club. We need to replace that… Read more »
We need the following
GK-Maybe Martinez
RB-Jenko & Lichie out
LB-We can have monreal cut out for a season
CM-Ramsey & Ozil replacements
Winger-Atleast one or else Nelson
Those are 5 critical positions where we have absolutely no one. On an average if we spend 20M for each of them, that’s a 100M kitty required just to fill up spaces. I really think we need 2-3 seasons to set things right for Emery.
The only problems I see are fullbacks because the academy doesn’t seem to have someone ready to step in either RB or LB granted AMN can play both to arguable effectiveness, we still need more… Cech will be replaced by Emi Martinez as number two and Welbeck/Rambo/Ozil? We have good academy prospects and maybe one addition in the summer will be enough in that department granted we sign suarez. In my opinion, we should look to offload Mhki before ozil…
Where does it say our budget for the summer is £40 million?
Arsenal are highly unlikely to make their budget public knowledge, especially with the feeling towards Kroenke.
Even Arsenal are not that stupid…
These kids are great. The future is really bright for the Arsenal.
I agree.
And the fact that should give them even more confidence is that they could not possibly be any worse than established first team players.
Nketiah, Saka, Smith – Rowe, Nelson, Amaechi etc. are fantastically talented players who would give the first team qualities they do not currently have – youth, pace, enthusiasm and focus on making it to the top – I ask you, does Ozil, Xhaka and Co have that?
Great young player with a massive future ahead of him.
This loan might well do the wonder of good for him – to hopefully get more games and the experience of playing in a foreign league.
Smith Rowe is an England international in the making.
There are a few young players that make me think that the future of Arsenal is rosier than we might think.
Hopefully Emery will recognise the talent of our youth players and we will see less and less of some of the “established” first team players who let us down so frequently…