If Arsenal are going to sell Emile Smith Rowe this summer it looks like Edu has the perfect conditions to secure a decent fee with Fulham and Crystal Palace going head-to-head for the midfielder.
After turning down an initial approach from the Cottagers earlier in the week, it’s reported by Fabrizio Romano that the Eagles are stepping up their interest in the 23-year-old.
Both clubs are flush with cash from the sale of prized assets to Bayern Munich. Fulham raised an initial £42.3 million for Joao Palhinha while Michael Olise moved to the Allianz Arena for £50 million.
🚨🔴🔵 Understand Crystal Palace are set to bid for Emile Smith-Rowe.
Fulham had proposal rejected by Arsenal this week and Palace now set to try, as Oliver Glasner really wants him.
🦅 #CPFC will also decide soon whether they will sign Ryan Sessegnon or not. pic.twitter.com/QDtUTP42XL
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 19, 2024
While Mikel Arteta isn’t desperate to offload Smith Rowe, it’s understood Arsenal won’t stand in the player’s way should they receive offers over £35 million.
When he signed a five-year deal in July 2021, Arteta said: “We have trust in Emile and we know he has the potential to be a beautiful player for many years to come.”
Unfortunately, despite inheriting the number 10 shirt at the time, things haven’t really worked out that way. Game time in the last couple of seasons has been severely limited with a persistent groin injury (that required surgery in September 2022) and the form of captain Martin Odegaard driving factors.
Were Arsenal to raise £35 million for Smith Rowe, his sale (not accounting for inflation) would challenge Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s move to Liverpool as the biggest in the club’s history.
Raised in the Arsenal Academy, all funds would also count as pure profit from a PSR standpoint.
Sad to see him go but he needs it for his own sake.
My fear is if ø gets injured. Much prefer ESR to Fabio V.
Same here, it is sad. I’d be keen to sanction a loan to boost his value. If he has a good season, he could easily be £50m plus come next year.
Nah, that’s a bit of wishful thinking. Could easily go the other way with him having a less than stellar loan move/another injury lay off, dropping his value because he’ll have a year less on his contract with no guarantee of another bidding war when we are ready to sell.
If we do want to sell, best to do it now that there’s 2 clubs that are willing to outbid each other for his services.
Odegaard is ball dominant, ESR is not. They are yin and Yang. Vieira is much closer to a like for like.
Odegaard is a possession player, ESR is a runner and carrier between the lines. Very different. Vieira much more similar to O.
Vieiria isn’t any of those…more of an impact player,goes anonymous for lots of the game then creates something from thin air… he’s also terrible lightweight,not exceptional out of possesion….has to dominate the ball and dictate the pace….wasnt a 34m pound player when we bought him
There are absolutely zero similarities between odegaard and viera!!
Both Smith Rowe and Vieira will leave, paving the way for Nwaneri to be number 1 cover for either 8 positions, can’t complain about that, although I’d like Smith rowe to stay as cover for the wings too.
Arteta with never expose Nwaneri this early. I bet he gets another season at U21, then a loan, before coming into the squad if he absolutely excels while with another club (Saliba style). Balogun smashed it on loan and still wasn’t deemed good enough to keep (though I think his attitude had something to do with that).
Any compare an attacking midfielder and a centre back or centre forward. Latter two are key pressure positions. I’d say saka is the more reasonable comparison. Played at 17. Regular at 18. If Ethan is that special – he will feature.
I have a feeling Saka’s trajectory would have been quite different if Arteta had taken over from Wenger. He may have gone out on loan first.
Didn’t we get 40m for iwobi when he went to everton?
That’s what I thought! But I googled it and it was 28. I guess there were a lot of add-ons
I think we got 40 for Oxlade-Chamberlain when he went to Liverpool.
No, Ox was also 35m. Iwobi was, apparently, 28m plus 7m in add-ons.
Good move for him. Croydon boy, can be the star for them.
Yes true and the fact that MA is flogging away people who he doesn’t like is a big worry. And I am waiting to see what happens to Aaron next. Sometimes a hope like Raya getting crocked shouldn’t be considered as wicked; fingers crossed. #SayNoToNepotism
You’re delusional
I don’t like how our academy output increasingly just gets flogged for minimal return. Arteta is turning into a checkbook manager and needs to look closer to home and not pull the plug on all the young talent we have coming thru. He barely gave ESR any minutes last season from which he could build his confidence back to a level where we would be able to start him every week. Arteta has a responsibility to nurture and bring thru our academy talent it’s what makes us the club we are and we shouldn’t lose that core belief!
No, you shouldn’t hope that the superior keeper by all metrics and team results shouldn’t get crocked because you have a massive crush on Ramsdale.
Explain your take on nepotism, because I suspect it’s a bit ugly.
He conflates the same nationality with Raya as nepotism from Arteta, as the reason why Arteta prefers Raya. Delusional best describes that take.
Yeah. That’s it. Arteta and his favourites. Gave ESR the 10 shirt and 150 a week. Eddie started many many games and on 100 a week. Nelson gets a new 4 year deal despite never looking at the level. Bigs them up all the time inpress.
I wish arteta hated me.
As for wanting ramsdale over Raya – you need to start watching cricket mate.football ain’t for you.
Wasn’t aware Arteta was related to any of the squad.
Not sure you know what #Nepotism means.
Bidding war?
Excellent news.
£32m with £10m in add-ons is a fair deal.
Get the cheque books out, Palace and Fulham.
Please, and thank you.
PS: Loser can get Reiss for £18m (excluding add-ons). Come on now, you know you want to…
Wow…… 🙁
Throw in that waste of money ‘Viera’ as well! No sorry nobody wants him
Did he chat up your girlfriend/boyfriend/other or something?
If you love em you gotta let em go bro.
Rebuff all offers until he becomes a record sale for us — then do the deal if ESR wants it. Otherwise, let him win a title or two with the Arsenal.
Perhaps even a third club might swoop in, gazump Palace and Fulham’s offers and hijack the transfer! Then we’ll have added a fair bit to our war chest
Can we get Eze as part of the deal?
ESR + Nelson for Eze would be a decent deal for both clubs.
Can’t see Palace selling both Olise & Eze in the same window, but one can hope
Sad to see him go but, he’s earned the right to move for more game time if that what he ends up wanting to do. It also works well for the squad as they unfortunately have not been able to consistently get the best of him for various reasons, be it injury, form or chemistry due to personnel/starting 11 position available. I hear that we may be interested in bringing back Eze to the club to cover left 8 and left wing role. I’d love to see him here, I think he would love to return asiys no secret that… Read more »
This looks like a great position for Arsenal: a nice little bidding war.
If ESR can stay fit he can still have a great career. Let’s get this deal done quickly, then we can reinvest the money on that striker we desperately need.
I’m broken hearted to say I think he should go for his own sake, get regular game time, develop the right way.
If things go right and he develops in the way we all thought he would, we could go for him again and I’m certainly he wouldn’t hesitate to rejoin us
ESR going home to Palace would be good for him.
It’s amazing that Arsenal’s record incoming fee is so low
Definitely a good move. Seems like he’s almost a shoe in first teamer with Olise gone. And if Glasner is pushing for him that’s great too, he might he hottest new manager right now. If he excels we can’t rule out a return at some point!
The tactical fit at Palace is interesting. Maybe a like for like in Olise’s RW role but different sorts of players, ESR has much less creative range, more of a Foden type finisher who needs service into an inside channel or arrives on to things from deeper areas. Wonder what Glasner is cooking up for him.
We are not a selling club, what player in the last 10 years have we sold that was worth a record fee?
Fabregas, RVP , Sanchez, Ozil, Auba, even bellerin, there’s many we should have got 35mil + for
No. It’s all about the wages those contracts carried and the market in the continent.
You can call it what you want. it’s an area that needs improving and has been since the invincibles. Chelsea Liverpool City are all better it than us.
I feel the tide is turning which will only be good news for us as a club.
I do not like this but nobody wants to be on the bench except the ultimate legend.
Bogarde?
Cedric?
Judge Judy?
We’ll live to regret selling him… Watch he’ll have a Cole Palmer like season and we’ll be busy arguing why Havertz would be the best inverted left-back and Martinelli will have another Willian-esque season like he did this year
This is a player that needs a very specific platform to thrive, namely as an inside forward in a transition heavy setup. Arsenal gave him that in 2020 but in 2024 we need control oriented players and guys who complement the system and the best players we already have. He might cook at Palace but that doesn’t mean we were wrong to sell him. Players need environments that suit them to thrive and we can’t prioritize him in that way.
Imagine saying a player is extremely talented, with the potential to produce results, yet deemed unfit for the team because they don’t visit the exact mold the manager wants…These Euros exemplified this silly nonsense of overcoaching instead of letting players play. Imagine if R9 had been told to press harder or he wouldn’t start.
Are you serious mate, these Euros exemplified exactly the opposite, it was too obvious these managers can’t coach these national teams properly because they barely have access to the players and extremely inconsistently, that’s why most of them don’t even bother to try and implement a proper system and mostly just play safe negative football instead, just don’t lose. Not a single critique of Southgate (nor Deschamps) was that he was “overcoaching”, the man has no vision besides getting everyone to defend well and being one of the luckiest managers as far as the talent at his disposal. Imagine if… Read more »
Check out tifo if you want to get into tactics, they were a great intro for me a couple of years back. The euros were exactly a lack of tactics (in general). international football doesn’t have enough time to be so tactically defined as a season long campaign..
And yes, some characters don’t fit the mold. Look at CR7 when he came back to United. Grealish in Aston villa compared to man city..etcetc
So true, it’s a fkn disgrace we’re selling him. This is a major fail from Arteta not being able to get the best out of him.
Lol, this has to be the coldest take on this year’s Euros I’ve heard…..and you’ve had some serious competition.
Also, whether or not he becomes the player he could have been at Palace is a moot point because he wouldn’t have become that player at Arsenal playing 5 games a season. People seem to think that players automatically get a +5 attribute boost at the end of each season like it’s FIFA, but in reality he’ll need consistent gametime to develop, which we can’t give him.
How many games did Arteta give Havertz? How many games did Arteta give fucking William? Give the same treatment to ESR and I guarantee he produces more than Havertz. There’s some crazy favoritism going on at Arsenal. At least it’s paying off but if we don’t start winning soon, MA needs to go or we’ll decline.
This is flat out delusion. There is absolutely nothing supporting your statement other than your hot take a devotion to a boy who almost came good but can’t stay healthy.
He should never have taken the 10 shirt. He thought he’d arrived, and that’s a red flag. MA knew it.
Arteta seems to forget that without ESR and Saka (and Ramsdale to some extent) he wouldn’t still be employed. No loyalty. The only thing I’ll say is ESR has got something and definitely needs to play somewhere!
100%, and to add to that we should absolutely root for him to do well there, same with Nelson and Eddie wherever they end up, because they’re Arsenal Academy products and we want our academy to be known for developing great players, even if they don’t make it at Arsenal. That will both attract the best young talents to the academy and probably raise the value of players we sell in future.
I disagree regarding a transition heavy setup. A lot of his play is give and goes on the edge of the box. He also has best season when we were developing the current system. The fact is we don’t play him in 8 because Aretata wants someone more physical there ad he has Martinelli and trossard for the wing.
Transitions help anyone score, but especially guys who depend either on sterling service or chaos to find openings. That’s most players to be fair but Arsenal are in such an elite echelon that we need players who can create regardless of whether they are facing a low block, mid block or high press. Smith is not a guy who is going to carve low blocks open by individual skill, agreed?
If Martinelli would have played as much as Saka, Rice or Odegaard this season he would easily have a 15 goal/assist season. It’s not outstanding, but I think it’s still quite remarkable from a 22 year old.
(Not to mention his last season)
Stumbled on a legit appearing insider account last night. Timeline was a bit of a gold mine. Some highlights: – Overall Arteta is happy with the squad but ideally wants 3-4 players in addition to backup GK, club doing lots of work in as much silence as possible to pave the way – Calafiori deal dragging due to the sell on clause from Basel, Bologna trying to max profits. No other bidders so Arsenal letting it play out, not desperate – Unlike past summers, they have a list of targets but waiting for opportunities on those, esp with Barca in… Read more »
Really interesting stuff, especially about the Barca-related Machiavelian manuevering. I’m guessing Williams would prefer Barca to us being Spanish and all, so we probably have to overpower them financially in this case to stand a chance. Man, that guy might really be the absolute ideal of a buy we could make in this window, really hope we manage it but trying not to get my hopes up too much. Can Sane play striker though? Would seem weird to bring someone of his calibre if he’s to play at the same position as Saka… and considering his recent profligacy in front… Read more »
Your last sentence is what makes this doubtful for me but Arteta bought Willem so who knows.
Sane would be a signing…. We do need someone in his mould and Bayern have spent bucks this window…. 1+1 definitely equals sane coming to the arsenal!
It’s hard, but for everyone’s benefit we’ve just gotta let him go, he needs to play.
Then let him fkn play in an Arsenal shirt ffs!!
Instead of who? I can’t think of a single regular in the starting 11 that should give way for him, assuming he’s fit.
Martinelli’s biggest weakness is his decision making in the final third which is smith rowe’s biggest strength. Smith rowe is a better player than Martinelli overall when fully fit and he can fit our system on the lw.
And yet Arteta continues to be criticized for not rotating….you telling me we can’t rotate ESR into the left 8 or MO position and keep everybody at equal levels?
No. If I was telling you anything, it’s that he’s one of the least available players in our squad. Injuries aren’t really his fault, but that’s unfortunately the reality. If the manager/coaching team aren’t happy using him (when fit), I would assume they have their reasons to. Judging from our pretty rapid improvement since that manager/coaching team was put in place, I’m minded to trust their decisions over ppl that have no connection to the players or professional football in general. Happy to have lively debates about it where we can all share our opinions. My radical opinion just so… Read more »
It’s ok to sell talented young players who don’t quite fit with your stylistic and personnel mix. Not sure why we are so traumatized by this as a fan base. If they do well, it’s not only pure profit but also a great advert for doing business with us and for prospects who are considering Hale End as a career path.
“Not sure why we are so traumatized by this as a fan base.”
I think it’s because we as fans are generally not that knowledgeable about modern tactics – so in this case, we see a potentially exciting player such as ESR and simply don’t see he doesn’t fit so well in our current system.
It’s been refreshing to read your takes here and there because I often learn something new about the game.
Take your level-headed, well reasoned comments elsewhere good doctor. Personally, I won’t be happy until we win the league with a squad of 25 U21’s – all locally sourced within a 2 mile radius of the Emirates.
Buy-back clause needed
Sell on clause needed if he goes.
Arsenal need to do more of this. It’s how modern clubs operate. It’s much easier to get a good fee for a player that fans don’t really want to be sold. I’ll miss him but I agree that’s it’s best for the club and for him. I hope we reinvest the funds well.
Do not let it happen!
If I hear the term “pure profit” one more time. Aswearagad
I find it really strange how much accounting jargon there is in football nowadays. I spend 9 hours a day working as an accountant just to come to my favourite Arsenal website and see words like “amortisation” and “PSR Pure profit” thrown around. I can’t escape!
Total capitalist realism my dude. We are fucked as a society.
Hate to see him go, but would be happy for him to go somewhere that he can get a true opportunity to play and develop. Just wish he had that opportunity at Arsenal. I would love to have seen him get a run in the squad of at least a few games vs just periodic opportunities. Definitely think he brings more and has more potential than Nketiah or Nelson. I am getting worried about how late it seems that we are starting to do any business (other than signing Raya permanently which was a foregone conclusion) with just four weeks… Read more »
Can’t help but think we will regret selling him. Love him as a player, love his direct play and I think he will be a massive asset to the club that ends up with him.
All our best young talent ends up getting sold for buttons. We then get the checkbook out and try to buy success. So far it hasn’t worked. If we’re letting the likes of ESR leave then I want to see results this season. Not gonna accept another “nearly” year. We’ve spent a fkn fortune last 3 seasons and we need to see some fkn silverware soon. Enough is enough.
Didn’t we sell Balogun for an initial €30m, possibly rising to €40m just last summer? Not bad for an academy player that never really played much in the prem.
Make it a loan with an option. He scores 10+ wherever he goes.