According to various reports, Arsenal have rejected an offer from Fulham for Emile Smith Rowe who is also of interest to Crystal Palace.
The Gunners are thought to be open to selling the 23-year-old midfielder but won’t do a deal on the cheap. It’s suggested the Cottagers bid around £25 million, significantly off the £40 million asking price.
Like fellow Hale End graduates Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson, Smith Rowe has found game time at the Emirates limited in the last couple of years and is weighing up how to approach the next period of his career.
Smith Rowe first came to prominence six years ago when he scored a rocket against Atletico Madrid during pre-season; a goal that underlined his potential and spurred the club to reward him with a five-year deal.
Arsenal have rejected a bid from Fulham for Emile Smith Rowe. The size of the offer is currently unclear and it remains to be seen whether #FFC try again, with Crystal Palace also interested. News of bid first reported by @skysports_sheth. More on @TeleFootball shortly.
— Sam Dean (@SamJDean) July 15, 2024
Unai Emery subsequently played him in the League Cup and Europa League before he head out on loan to RB Leipzig. Unfortunately, he was hampered by groin and hamstring injuries, the former proving to be a long-term issue, and didn’t build any real momentum until a loan spell at Huddersfield in the first half of 2020.
A year into Mikel Arteta’s reign he finally became a regular at the Emirates, filling a Mesut Ozil-shaped gap behind the attack and thriving alongside Bukayo Saka. He played a lot of football in the space of 12 months, penned a new deal, took over the number 10 shirt and became an England international. However, the fact he was increasingly used as an impact sub towards the end of the 21/22 season suggested he was struggling for fitness.
An operation on his groin in April 2022 confirmed that. And, coupled with the form of Martin Odegaard, it meant Smith Rowe played just 241 minutes of the following campaign. It was a similar story in 23/24 when he made 19 appearances in all competitions but even though he was mostly fit he was only handed three starts in the Premier League.
New: Smith Rowe reveals four-year struggle with groin issues https://t.co/ikXu3D80RB #arsenal #afc pic.twitter.com/w2IhpNwNR2
— arseblognews (@arseblognews) January 10, 2023
In truth, the writing has been on the wall for a while. A talented player, homegrown and popular on the terraces, it’s clearly going to be a very difficult decision to sell Smith Rowe. At the same time, we know there is little room for sentiment at the top of the game and with PSR rules a constraint, the prospect of earning pure profit from the midfielder’s sale, isn’t something the club can ignore.
With two years left on his current deal, it’s the perfect time to sell. Let’s see what Fulham and Palace decide in the coming weeks.
According to The Telegraph, funds from the sale of Smith Rowe could be directed towards Real Sociedad’s Mikel Merino. Arsenal have been waiting for the end of the European Championships to step up their interest in the 28-year-old Spain international who could be available for around £20 million.
Merino has been playing in La Liga for six years having previously been on the books at Newcastle and Borussia Dortmund.
It’s a sad story – ESR is always exciting on the ball, but doesn’t have the game intelligence and confidence of Saka, and too often gets caught out of position or reacting late to game-state changes. But the injuries did the most harm to his progression.
It is more that his style of play doesn’t fit the Arteta plan. ESR is very direct and feeds off one-twos, whereas the team take relatively fixed positions in a passing game. Also, defending is not a natural part of his game and Mikel demands that from everyone.
I think he absolutely does fit the game plan and if ESR could be trusted for 35 games a year we’d probably never have signed Trossard. Arteta has shown that he values availability above all else, as Tierney, Zinchenko and maybe even Tomiyasu have found out with the successive signings in their position.
This is a good, insightful comment. People don’t like hearing negativity about likeable players, but it’s not about their personality or their terrace songs or their history in the club, it’s about what they will give you on the pitch in the seasons ahead and how that fits with the overall structure and what you’re trying to do.
ESR has a lot of game intelligence. A fit ESR could be the replacement if Ode gets injured.
Love transfer season, the only time of the year where you hear words like “rebuffed”, “gazumped”, “hijacked”, “plotting a bid” and “war chest”.
In other news would be over the moon if we got over 30mil for ESR, it would be a big risk for any buying club to pay that sort of sum after the 2 years he just had so I guess if one does it will mainly come down to “the English tax”
Don’t forget “monitoring the situation”, “shock move”, and “X team is on alert.”
Come on–you can’t do it without “swoop.”
Damn it! And that’s my favorite one besides the previously mentioned “gazumped.” Not enough caffeine this morning
Personal favourite is when the transfer window “slams shut”
LANS
If we were to sell Reiss, Emile, Eddie and Aaron, that would be a big hit to the home grown contingent of our squad. What impact does that have on our transfer business?
25 million!? I wonder what they’re smoking over there at Craven Cottage.
On a separate note, I will miss singing Here We Go, oh! Saka and Emile Smith Roweeeeee.
On a separate separate note, Here we go ESR never rang truer.
I always felt ESR is perfect for us. Yes he might not play the exact style MA wants but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he produces moments and plays with freedom. Looking at these Euros, boring, safe, and pattern-driven football lost, and exciting, spontaneous football won. ESR brings spontaneity to the pitch, something we sometimes desperately lack.
In an ideal world i’d play ESR on the left every game vs the lower half to unlock deep blocks, and keep Martinelli when there’s space to run into and defenders to press in the big matches.
He can’t shoot, rarely middling the ball in the meat of his boot. Yes there are exceptions, but the number of scuffed miskicks he has produced around the edge of the box is innumerable. I would personally prioritise selling Reiss, and then Eddie, but if ESR is the one attracting more interest and higher fees then regrettably he might need to go.
Shooting is a confidence thing. 3 years ago he could definitely shoot as evidenced by all the goals he scored, now he suddenly can’t shoot? It’s just a question if he’ll find a team that gives him the run and patience he needs to rebuild that confidence and if his health holds up for once to do that, same as we saw with Havertz or as I still believe we could see with Jesus. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice whether it happens or not, especially with players like that who are often injured, but to say… Read more »
Merino seems like an underwhelming signing if it happens
Except for all the commentary it will enable, like “that pass was as silky as Merino wool!” or “he led those City players like Merino sheep to the slaughter!”
That said it means we will no longer be able to refer to Arteta by his first name without causing confusion, so for this reason alone I’m fundamentally against it.
Olmo or Fabian Ruiz would be perfect for us in that left 8 space
I’m excited by his signing if it does happen, good price, allowing us to allocate funds elsewhere, good player, can play alongside Rice rotating both between 6 and 8, can also play instead of Rice giving him a much needed rest occasionally. Hopefully we can wrap him and Calafori up relatively quickly so we can focus our funds on securing Nico Williams !
good luck with that !
At the prices being quoted I think Merino is a very good signing. He’s probably the closest thing to a Xhaka profile in the world, only 3 years younger. If we sign him at the same price being quoted (£25m) we’ve effectively replaced Granit with a younger version for free. That’s good business in my eyes.
I had dinner last week with a friend who has recently invested in a European football club. We got talking about transfers, clubs business models and more specifically clubs awareness of where they sit in the food chain. We got on the subject of Crystal Palace, the sale of Olise and that Crystal Palace’s model is to buy in the £10-15m range and sell for a profit, al la Olise. So there it is, my guess is the kind of offers we’re receiving are in that range and if we’re lucky we might be able to stretch it out to… Read more »
Wasn’t the rejected offer around the £25m mark?
As i said, we might be able to stretch it out to £25m but the Crystal Palace business model is around the £10-15m mark.
In a summer in which they sell Olise and Eze maybe they lose their discipline but i think the chances of getting £40m out of Palace is very slim, they are looking for value
Who isn’t looking for value? They’re better off looking abroad or in the championship for that price range. Talented, young English players at top clubs are not something you look at if you want cheap.
Which is what they do and why the chances of them spending £40m are very slim.
The only chances they will spend that type of fee is if after selling Olise and Eze they fear a relegation fight if they don’t because believe me that’s the limit to their sporting ambition
I guess so!
Also I’d be quite surprised if Levy is going to fork out 60 million in one hit to meet the release clause of Eze after failing to secure CL football
Don’t shoot the messenger
It might be true, but very out of character for Levy/Spurs if it is. The only way he goes to spurs is if we don’t want him.
How you evaluate a player like this is really interesting. First, nobody has ever paid a transfer fee for him. Then you look at age and stylistic fit compared to other options. His profile is not common. A midfield transition merchant and final third poacher, almost a raumdeuter but with some of the accelerant properties of a Rosicky. Probably most similar to Alvarez or Foden but without the scoring and fitness track record of those two who are themselves controversial because of their niche roles and lack of versatility and physicality, yet they can break games open with a single… Read more »
As per my comment above sporting parameters are only part of the equation, other parts are age and can they get the player at a price where they can make money a couple of years down the line. We make assumptions as fans that clubs are trying to build the best team possible, but that’s simply not the case. For most Premier league clubs the objective is to not be relegated. So clubs don’t want to be relegated and they what to do that by buying youngsters in the ideally £10-15m bracket, possibly going up to a very maximum of… Read more »
Arteta out now!!!
Southgate in!!!
Please, do not sell the Arsenal man!
I think he could be better than he seemed last season with more minutes to settle.
That said, we have ESR, Viera and maybe Charlie Patino as sort-of backups to Odegaard. We could probably do without two of those if we could get Merino.
I’d be sad to see ESR go, but if we get a good enough price, probably makes sense.
Charlie Patino is not even close to an Odegaard backup. He barely played for an average Championship team last season and I’d be amazed if he ever makes an appearance for us.
None of those players put in enough work off the ball to adequately fill in for odegaard and will impact the team in a different way.
£33m.
£7m in add-ons.
Fulham, get your cheque book out.
Please.
And thank you.
We all know they have the palinha money. My wife she is always asking for the palinha money, so please… the palinha money
Odegaard will take the No.10 shirt if ESR leaves