Arsenal’s Hale-End academy has been very fruitful over the years and proved that they are better off using their own players than the transfer market.
The biggest proof of all of that has been the continued success of Bukayo Saka compared to transfer flop, Nicolas Pepe.
But whilst Bukayo Saka thrives in Arsenal colours, someone like Emile Smith Rowe, who had an equally promising start to his Arsenal career, now finds himself at a crossroads.
Ian Wright asked ‘what’s going on with him?’ when he was discussing Arsenal’s current situation and the transfer market, as he told Premier League Productions (01/01/24 at 2:15 pm).
Journalist Julien Laurens spoke about how Mikel Arteta’s side will struggle to bring in a high volume of players during the January transfer window, before stating that ‘there is a market for Emile’ when discussing possible departures.
The 23-year-old was once on an upward trajectory in Arsneal colours, but injuries have brought the £40k-a-week star crashing down.
This season, he has only played 243 minutes of football in all competitions after playing only 241 minutes last term.
What has happened to Emile Smith Rowe?
“They won’t be able to sign three players in January even if they wanted to, anyway,” said Laurens.
“I think they will look at the market, in terms of opportunities and position. You might have departures, someone like Kiwior, he wants to play more, especially if he wants to go to the Euros with Poland.”
Ian Wright then interrupted and asked: “What about someone like Emile Smith Rowe as well? What’s going on with him?”
Laurens added: “There is a market for Emile. A wonderful young player. But he hasn’t featured enough for us to see the Emile that had an incredible first half of the season years ago.”
Should Emile Smith Rowe leave Arsenal?
This is something Smith Rowe now needs to face head-on and decide as soon as possible because it is starting to affect his career.
It just isn’t clicking for him, for whatever reason, and he needs to find a new home in order to pick up his game again.
Ideally, he should be looking for a permanent transfer, those regular starts, so he can put himself on the map again and perhaps get back into the England set-up.
The 3-cap England star is of that level, if he is playing regularly and performing at the standard he knows he can.
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