Arsenal have recalled Matt Smith from his loan at Swindon Town and confirmed the midfielder will now spend the rest of the season with fellow League One side Charlton Athletic.
After signing in August, the 20-year-old impressed at the County Ground scoring twice and making four assists in 26 appearances.
While the mid-season move is a little surprising, switching from Wiltshire to South London means Matt trades a relegation battle for a promotion chase; Swindon are 22nd in the table, whereas Charlton, in 7th, are just eight points behind leaders Hull City.
Smith is yet to make his senior debut for the Gunners but his shock of blond hair was a regular on the substitutes’ bench at the tail-end of last season.
No doubt he’ll be driven to make an impression at the Valley with a view to forcing his way into Mikel Arteta’s thinking next pre-season. He follows in the footsteps of Alex Song, Francis Coquelin and Yaya Sanogo.
Great move to work with a promising young manager. All the best to him.
Don’t forget Matt Smith has more winners medals than Harry Kane
Though to be fair to him, Kane did celebrate an unbeaten season https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2944794/Tottenham-hero-Harry-Kane-pictured-celebrating-Arsenal-s-Invincibles-Premier-League-title-win-10-year-old-2004.html
I have as many.
Hopefully he can use his FA Cup Final winning mentality to help his loan club attain promotio. Good luck Matt!
Cool pic
Why the fuck is no one talking about Bruno Fernandes red card?
Technically, no one is not talking about Fernandes’ red card. You are.
Technically, he is talking about talking about Bruno Fernandes’ red card.
Technically, this is a post about young Matt Smith.
Didn’t see much of him at Swindon but there is a beautiful slide rule assist of his circulating on the net.
Jorge Bird writes encouragingly of his development. Wish him well and hope he is the special sauce for Charlton to get promoted.
Still though, hard to see a clear path to first team football for him at Arsenal, but you never know…
Unfortunately Swindon went from a manager who was keen to play football on the grass to one who isn’t. Swindon had to let one loanee go to bring in another and it was clear that Smith was the one who was surplus. The rumour is that Smith asked to be that one!
Good learning curve for Smith, but he’ll develop faster at Charlton.
Ballard is also one to watch. A real unit.
Great loan move for him. Charlton know how to develop talent.