Mikel Arteta admits he’s sad to see Emile Smith Rowe leave the club given the impact he made during his years as a first team player.
The England international completed his £34 million move to Fulham this afternoon ending a 14-year association with the club.
Smith Rowe came through the ranks at Hale End before making his debut during Unai Emery’s tenure. He would embark on loan spells with RB Leipzig and Huddersfield before his Premier League breakthrough in 2020/21 during Arsenal’s worst start in decades.
The midfielder’s energy and courage on the ball, matched by fellow academy graduate Bukayo Saka, proved to be the foundations of a new Arsenal; one built in Arteta’s image. He was later rewarded with a new long-term contract the number 10 shirt.
Unfortunately, a long-standing groin issue plagued him and following surgery in September 2022 he fell out of favour and his confidence dropped. His move to west London doesn’t come as a huge surprise but it’s still one of the more painful sales in recent years.
“Emile’s commitment, attitude and energy every day was first class, always stepping up when the team needed him,” Arteta told Arsenal.com.
“He came into the first team and was instrumental during a difficult moment for us. He created an important impression, with his strong performances making our supporters proud.
“I’m sad that Emile is leaving us, but excited for him to take this new opportunity at this stage of his career, when he needs to be starting matches and playing regularly.
“Emile is loved by everyone at the club and leaves us with our gratitude, absolute respect and best wishes. We all wish Emile and his family well at Fulham.”
Sporting Director Edu was also quick to thank the player. He said: “Emile is loved by us all at the club. He has been with us for many years, and we are so proud that he has developed through our Academy system into our first team.
“It has been a positive collaboration to find the right place for Emile, where he will continue to grow and make his mark on the Premier League. We have completed an important and positive deal for everyone.
“We thank Emile for everything he gave to Arsenal and we wish him well in the next stage of his career.”
In his first interview with his new club, Smith Rowe said: “It feels really good, it’s been good to speak to the manager a couple of times. I’m finally here so I’m really happy for me and my family. It’s a good moment.
“It’s been a tough couple of days, a lot of flying but I’m really excited and I just wanted to get here as soon as possible so I can get going with my teammates and meet everyone at the facilities.
“Listening to the project, speaking to the manager and seeing what players they have here, I know a few of the players already, I think it’s an exciting project for me and definitely the next perfect step for my career going forward.”
Sad times, best of luck Emile
he looked sad too. hopefully he properly kicks on from here!
It is indeed sad to see someone very own leave. The way MA pretends and his crocodile tears(metaphorically ) are quite preposterous.
That Ramsdale tattoo must burn like a Harry Potter scar whenever Arteta is near …
I don’t know how old you are but the boy who will divorce with your daughter, I wouldn’t like to be him.
If you think Arteta wasn’t 100% invested across multiple years in getting ESR to succeed at Arsenal you have to be pathologically degenerate, he’s done everything to keep Emile at Arsenal and always showed hope that the player could find his place in the team and some good form. When given chances Emile never quite impressed unfortunately and at some point the manager’s hands are tied in that sort of situation because his ultimate responsibility is to field a winning team and to do that he needs to choose players based on merit, not just talent.
His last appearances were looking good and not to be confused with the false start comeback he made between injuries.
Wish I could down vote this a million times. The way you pretend to know MA is pretending is preposterous. He’s a genuine as they come.
It is a shame. Shame on the management.
Man, that’s funny! 😆
Well done management. You don’t win trophies by being sentimental. He’s not good enough for what arsenal want to be. It’s a good deal for all and all the best to him.
His potential is still massive. He’s already proven that. What he never proved was his ability to stay fit at a time when we were hardly losing. Chances naturally became hard to come by. Arteta won’t be the manager forever and thus our playing style could change one day. If Emile gets back to his best it’s not unfathomable that he could find himself in an Arsenal shirt again one day.
I hope so.
He’s 24 years old, he shouldn’t be potential at this stage. He’s going to shine at a mid table club but isn’t good enough for a title chasing team. He and Reiss have had years to prove themselves and haven’t stepped up. Time to move on and give the new youngsters a chance.
I feel like there should be more news at this time of the year. No more incomings or outgoings?
I’m glad that Edu and, especially, Arteta gave such positive statements. Some of it is normal when an academy kid leaves, but I think they went a bit further than that, stressing the affection that everyone feels for him. For Arsenal supporters, not an ordinary loss–a player like Joe Willock (for example) was well-liked and everyone wanted to see him do well. But Smith Rowe was a guy we thought would never leave.
You stole my words, it is painful in the same way it was when Wilshere was let go. But I hope ESR will succeed and realize the potential we all know he had. And maybe one day come back and join Arsenal.
Man, we are a good club made up a top human beings who treat one another like family. Listen to Arteta and Edu and catch up on the tributes the players are giving to ESR online. Love these guys, and ESR will always, always have a place in our hearts.
Nothing but love for the Croydon De Bruyne.! He’s getting a coveted place in my FPL team and I know he won’t disappoint!
It’s sad but it’s the best move for everyone.
Now we need to move Eddie along, and maybe Reiss, Zinny and Partey.
Edu’s market is open for business, no good offer refused.
Sad but understandable. Last time I felt like this about a player leaving us was when Rocky was sold to Leeds.
Different generation but this is as bad as Fab to Barca for me. Had a lil knot in my stomach this morning. Happy to see him go to a good family club with a solid manager though. I’ll be cheering him on this season.
I get that you love the player, but same as Cesc to Barca?!?!?
That’s a bit of a stretch mate.
Losing Cesc would be like losing Odegaard right now. Emile is a nice lad, but didn’t have that much of an impact at Arsenal if you look at the numbers as a whole. I wish him well and hope he can stay healthy and find some form!
You can’t make an impact if you’re not picked to play.
If you make an impact in training the he will play you. That was been shown already. Love ESR, would dearly love to have kept him but he couldn’t win his place back after his injuries and surgery. Quite simply he couldn’t get himself ahead of martinelli and trossard and he never stood a chance of getting ahead of odegaard. Loved him, had loads of pottential, would have dearly liked him to stay but this is not on the mgr, he has to pick the team he believes to be the best. There may have been a few occasions where… Read more »
Will definitely be watching a lot more Fulham games this year.
Apples and oranges for me. Rocky like ESR was Arsenal through and through and didn’t ask to leave. Cesc, as much as I respect him, forced his way out of our club to go home.
Same
Maybe Edu, Arteta and the Kroankes at the moment are thinking that we are now at the doorstep of challenging for the very top – So they want to be ruthless and maybe see the Merino, Havertz, Rice trio an inch ahead of ESR.
Besides the combo of these three are able to provide a pathway for Nwaneri on the longer(?) term for Nwaneri
Well,I hate to see him leave because we expected him to be a future backbone of the club due to his humble disposition. I wish the best in his new endeavor at Fulham.
I believe that last season if Arsenal had Granit Xhaka in their ranks they would have won the league and progressed further in the champions league. Without him Bayern Leverkusen would hardly if not improbably have won the double in Germany and reached a European final. Xhaka was the crucial missing link and so the team eventually finished second. Without for the moment having the special weight of the Swiss, Emile Smith Rowe has versatile skills to give 1500 -2000 quality minutes throughout the season (as long as of course the coaching team works on the skills of the not-quite-key… Read more »
He was one of the victims of the team’s move to a single pivot. That’s not a job he can do with our high line. At Bayer, he’s in a double pivot. Perfect fit. This is what I mean about transposing player performance… the tactical environment/fit is crucial.
Xhaka’s best role is different in Germany and England. In Germany (Bayer and Borussia) he’s a deep lying playmaker. In England his best role was “left 8” (eyeroll) in a 433, because: 1) can’t play him deeper in England – he gets dispossessed regularly in positions that leave the team vulnerable to being turned around (see, e.g., his first 4 seasons in England). Don’t know why this doesn’t happen in Germany. 2) he was surprisingly good at *receiving* progressive passes in/around the opposition penalty area (i.e. really tight spaces), despite looking slow and ponderous deep in his own half. He’s… Read more »
He got dispossessed often because he was given too much responsibility. He doesn’t have the ability to open passing angles on his weaker foot, or to shimmy into space under pressure. He needs a partner. It’s not happening at Bayer because he’s in a double pivot so there is always a simple pass on. His limitations don’t get exposed and he doesn’t feel like he has to do it all himself, so fewer of those misguided extravagant passes that get picked off. Then if he does make a mistake there’s an extra body there to help him recover.
He played in a 4231 double pivot his first four years here, that partner didn’t help. Both his German teams play/ed a double pivot plus 3 at the back (343), that’s the extra body behind him that allows him to do his thing. His thing in Germany includes spectacular long-range shooting, which we didn’t allow him to do nearly enough of here, outside of free kicks.
*Not exclusively a 4231 double pivot, but enough times with a more defensive midfielder alongside him like Torreira or Elneny.
Torreira and Elneny says it all doesn’t it.
Xhaka is the difference yet we got more points this season without him. Literally makes no sense.
We better win something this year or it will be a catastrophique failure of management.
Love the flair of the French spelling!
Merci!
Nothing is ever guaranteed. There could be so many reasons why things go wrong that are not down to the management team.
There is no shame in finishing second to a team that breaks over 100 rules!!!!
Sad to see him leave. Hope he stays fit. I wish we had a buy back or right to match clause inserted if he does as well as we hope (and that fitness thing again). I mean in 3 years he will still only be 27.
All the best Emile! Just not against us!
I sense a comeback to North London in a couple of years.
He did his part for team with commitment and dedication… Best of luck to him
Not been this gutted about a player leaving since Merse. Great lad and phenomenal footballer to watch. All the best to ESR, hope he can stay fit and really fulfil his huge talent.
about 4 months ago, arteta gave emile a game against luton town and in the post-match interview, all i heard from emile is “i don’t want to leave arsenal”…regardless of the question. the problem is emile needed more than a single game. i believe arteta would start the same 11 every game if he could. this has got to be discouraging for the players not in that 11, knowing that regardless of how they trained, they’d likely never get a game. you have to use the squad to keep players engaged, to keep competition high, and to make everyone feel… Read more »
Interesting point. It is really hard to find flaws at a Manager who drove us so far, but his squad management (rotation subs) could be improved. Having said that I don’t think my beloved ESR would be ever a starter at a champion challenging team. Maybe the one I fell in love could.
Wait 3 months and the people that downvoted your comment will be saying Zinchenko Jesus Troussard Partey or whoever have fallen out of favour with Arteta aren’t good enough, we’ve moved on from them. Meanwhile they are good players,on big wages whose transfer value is being tanked. Roll on next summer and it will be the same. It’s not sustainable financially to continually lose money on players every season. He needs to find a way to use more of the players we have or the only way we can afford for him to repeatedly change his mind will be to… Read more »
Hilarious. To cite financial sustainability as an obligation and to follow that by saying that we haven’t and won’t win anything under Arteta management is seriously funny. Arteta has delivered the best team for two seasons running, a team good enough to win the PL after a thoroughly financially doped ManCity. We won more games than the Invincibles last season. Keep posting this stuff. I love it. It reminds me of those comments people used to post about how we should have hired Conte, or Potter, or Benitez, or Mourinho, that we should have never sold Joe Willock, that Ben… Read more »
Hope you’re right, but I think our chance was the last couple of seasons. City’s spending is no excuse, the games that cost us over the last 2 seasons were against the likes of Fulham villa west ham Southampton.
Excuse? Financial doping is not spending, it is cheating. Every team loses games, aside from the Invincibles, but that doesn’t mean City deserve their titles in accordance with the ethics of fair play.
That’s the glass half empty approach.
Its exactly the same thing people were saying at the end of the 2021-22 season, that we’d had our chance and blown it.
In practice we came back even stronger last season, and I believe the same will happen this time.
We set a club record last season on points attained. The direction of travel is clear. Arteta plays the players he believes will win us the league. TBF he does overplay the starting 11 and the squad he is willing to play is small, but he hasn’t been wrong on what level it takes to win.
arteta’s played the same guys and admitted just last week that’s he’s been lucky with the health of players like saliba. fact is when a team wins the league, they have to use the squad. it’s just best to integrate them and play them regularly to ensure they’re playing well before you need them. the players on this arsenal team that aren’t first choice can still play. is emile better than odegaard or rice? probably not. truth is we don’t know how good he is. i’m willing to bet he was good enough to help arsenal win the league. we… Read more »
Stop making so much sense, Futsboller! Where is your catastrophizing and hyperbole? This is the internet, man!
We have just records the highest points tally ever, the list goals scores ever and the best goal difference ever. It is because of the mgr that we are able to compete with city. The ONLY reason we haven’t won anything these last couple fo seasons is because city have an unfair advantage with squad depth that they achieved through creating amd breaking ffp rules in previous years! I cannot understand how people cannot see the obvious improvements that have been achieved during artetas time, it’s there for everyone to see in black and white. People who say we haven’t… Read more »
How is it a little ignorant? The whole point is to win. I just think Arteta has been found out a bit in some of the big games in the league and he’s been seriously outcoached in the European games in both the Europa and Champions league. There’s every chance that could change but I think he’s a bit too stubborn with his approach, especially with not using the squad enough.
I have got to your city point though that there is little to no drop off in quality when they use their squad, there is in ours. We arw giving everything we can to keep up with amd overtake city, the margins are so small we cannot afford to play a player back in to form or build their confidence. Every single game is a must win. That being said there were times when I though esr could get on in games when he stayed on the bench
“I don’t like it, don’t like it, don’t like it, no-noooo, no-noooo,…
Sad to see Emil Smith go…”
ESR was a big reason why Arteta saved his job. Arsenal were languishing at 17th when Emile & Saka burst onto scene and literally carried the team back then.
Edu never let on that Arteta wasn’t going to get the time to turn this club into serial contenders again — in fact, the brass only ever put forward their support for him and the request for patience from the fans. And boy, did they get it right!! We owe Artedu a lot, and it was a joy to see ESR and Saka help bring faith back into the club and our football as well. Saka is going to be phenomenal this season!
Literally?
I didn’t realise the two of them were that strong.
I suspect he doesn’t know the literal meaning of the word.
Best of luck to esr, who may turn out to be great, or he may turn out to be iwobi 2 (for the record I was also sad we let iwobi depart, but he seems happier now that he’s found his level).
Odegaard will take the #10 shirt?
The main reason i think is his fitness. He cant press enough cod he doesnt have the energy. Way better left winger than martinelli but msrtinelli has the pace and fitness to track back.
Way better might be a bit of a stretch. I think him being moved centrally is the biggest reason for him not getting a look-in, though. I think he’d be far more involved in play than Trossard if he played wide left. He probably wouldn’t score the same amount of goals, though.
Get him in your fantasy teams! I’ve got a strong feeling that he’ll absolutely smash it at the Cottage. Desperately sad day – but happy for him to get the opportunity to play regularly.
My Fantasy team is called Arsenal.
My fantasy team is called Arselona.
When I used to do Fantasy, my team was called Battle-scarred Galacticos.
Then they put a character limit on it and I had to change to something way more boring.
Shame to see him go, good lad, great attitude, never sulked or moaned about playing time. But his injuries stopped him playing and progressing, when he was fit he wasn’t trusted as the team had evolved beyond him. Hopefully he can kick on and be at least half the player he looked when he burst onto the scene with Saka.
We nerd absolute workd class at every position and he just aint that good but still too good and to be on the bench. Hes a fine player leaving on good terms. Just shows how far we have gotten.
I don’t know about Arteta being sad but I was sad to see ESR left on the bench as often as he was. I’m happy we’ll get to see him flourish at Fulham. Fingers crossed things work out well for him.
After the selling I am so depressed and disinterested in the Arsenal. Barely reading anything and feeling miserable.
No one is a bad guy in this…this is just part of life. I’m sad he’s moved on, I feel like everyone was really rooting for him here at arsenal. I hope we get to see him succeed at Fulham.
Ok Mikel as you wish…just please dont lose a 3rd title in a row to the westhams,newcastles and fulhams of this league. And hopefully we see this ruthless version of you when it comes to zinchenko f.vieira nketiah as well.
He scored already and was very lively against Sevilla last night. Came on in second half, good lad👍
Extremely Sincere Respect to ESR. Together with Saka, silver lining of one of our darker period. Thanks and best wishes!