Emile Smith Rowe: A New Beginning for One of Hale End’s Finest Products
After a 14-year spell at his boyhood club, highly rated English midfielder, Emile Smith Rowe has made the switch from North to West London to join Fulham in a club record deal that could rise to £34 million with add-ons. Smith Rowe is one of the success stories from Arsenal’s Hale End Academy, making his first senior appearance against Vorskla Poltava in a Europa League game on the 20th of September 2018 and also scoring in his first ever senior start in the following Europa League game against Qarabag.
Smith Rowe immediately made a good first impression on the fans and then manager Unai Emery who had initially described Smith Rowe as having “lots of potential.” Smith Rowe would then go on two separate loan spells at RB Leipzig and Huddersfield Town before finally becoming a full-fledged member of the Arsenal first team in the 2020/21 season when he made 33 first team appearances in all competitions, scoring three goals and also providing seven assists.
It was evident that Smith Rowe possessed the sort of talent that distinguished him from so many other academy graduates at the club. Alongside Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah, the English midfielder represented one of Hale End’s biggest chances at producing a world-class talent who could turn out to be a mainstay in Arsenal’s first team.
The 2020/21 season despite being Smith Rowe’s breakthrough season did highlight an issue that has been prevalent throughout the Englishman’s career. A shoulder injury saw Smith Rowe miss a total of 18 games for Arsenal that season, and in the previous season when he spent the first half at Arsenal before heading out to Huddersfield Town on loan in the second half of the season, Smith Rowe had struggled with a groin injury that saw him miss a total of 20 games in all competitions for the Arsenal first team.
He could only make a total of six appearances for the Gunners before his loan spell in the Championship. The 2019/20 season was, however, not the genesis of Smith Rowe’s injury struggles; The Hale End star had joined RB Leipzig on loan in the second half of the 2018/19 season after his first few senior appearances for Arsenal which all came in cup competitions.
There was an expectation that on joining Leipzig, Smith Rowe will be able to gain more first-team experience and playing time but a hamstring injury coupled with an abductor pain meant the then-teenager could make just three appearances which all came in the Bundesliga having been available for just four Bundesliga games and not listed in the squad that lost the DFB-Pokal Final 3-0 to Bayern Munich on the 25th of May, 2019.
It was a total of 14 games missed through injury for RB Leipzig in Smith Rowe’s brief and disappointing loan spell in Germany. Although, his second loan spell in the championship a year later proved to be more fruitful as he never missed a game through injury for Huddersfield and was influential in the West Yorkshire side’s quest for safety in the second tier of English football, playing 19 Championship games for the club and starting in 13 of those.
A new contract and a new jersey number in July 2021 was emphatic in highlighting the trust and confidence Arsenal had in Emile Smith Rowe. Mikel Arteta was building something special with a very young Arsenal side and it was evident that Smith Rowe had been earmarked to be a major protagonist. The number 10 jersey which was previously donned by highly rated Brazilian, Willian was inherited by Smith Rowe.
It was fantasy turned into reality for Arsenal fans who were definitely proud seeing two of their best academy products in Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe not only becoming first-team regulars but donning the iconic number 7 and 10 jerseys respectively. That 2021/22 season remains Smith Rowe’s most productive season at senior level to date as he hit double digits for goals in 33 Premier League appearances as Arsenal finished fifth on the EPL log.
Overall, the midfielder made 37 appearances, 24 of those being starts in all competitions, scoring 11 times and assisting twice. The Croydon De Bruyne as he is fondly called by fans never ceased to delight Gunners fans with his strong ball-carrying, guile, spatial awareness and passing.
Throughout that season, he showcased everything you’d want in a modern-day number 10; decent passing and finishing ability plus having the technical security to be able to manipulate the ball in tight spaces either centrally or in the half spaces alongside top decision-making for a player of his age.
He also showed his versatility as he sometimes played as a left-winger usually coming inside on his right foot to shoot or create, or going on the outside to pose a threat with crosses on the weaker foot. We were witnessing the emergence of a top-tier footballing talent. Smith Rowe was dubbed the next big thing and it was in that same season he got his first call-up to the England Senior Team, eventually making his debut as a substitute in a 5-0 win over Albania and scoring his first England goal in a 10-0 win over San Marino all in November 2021.
Unfortunately, after a season without the prevalent injury woes, the injuries returned in the 2022/23 season as Smith Rowe could make a total of only 15 appearances in all competitions with only one start which came in a Premier League 2 match for the Arsenal U-21s where he made played just 45 minutes against Chelsea U-21s.
Emile Smith Rowe ended up missing 17 games in 2022/23 and Arsenal did something special that season by challenging Manchester City for the Premier League title but ended up finishing second and it was a similar story just last season when Arsenal still finished as runners-up behind City but without their influential academy product playing a significant role in their title challenge as Smith Rowe could make only 19 appearances across all competitions missing up to10 games through injury.
The 24-year-old could only make four starts out of those 19 appearances and this time around, it dawned that it was not only fitness concerns keeping him out of the Arsenal starting 11, the club seemed to have moved on and they did not need to rely on their homegrown number 10 anymore. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, and Gabriel Martinelli were often fully fit and doing just fine in attack.
Fulham’s Flying Start to Life in the Premier League Under Marco Silva
Besides, over the past two years, the club had gone on to invest in attacking talents like Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz meaning that Smith Rowe’s rank in the pecking order of attacking midfielders and forwards at the club had significantly decreased. Hence, Arsenal cashing in on him this summer has not come as a surprise at all.
Emile Smith Rowe will now be looking forward to starting a new life at Fulham under Marco Silva and if he is able to stay fit, he will most likely cement a spot in Fulham’s starting 11. “I’m finally here, so I’m really happy for me and my family – it’s a good moment,” Smith Rowe said to the Fulham website following the official announcement of his move yesterday.
“I’m really excited, I just wanted to get here as quickly as possible so I could get going with my teammates. Listening to the project, speaking to the manager [Marco Silva], and seeing what players we have here already, I think it’s an exciting project for me, and definitely the perfect step for my career going forward.”
Smith Rowe’s arrival at Craven Cottage adds to the array of attacking options at Marco Silva’s disposal after the departure of Bobby De Cordova-Reid, and Smith Rowe’s versatility offers him the opportunity to compete with former Arsenal teammate, Alex Iwobi, Andreas Pereira, Tom Cairney, and Willian for spots in both the centre of midfield and on the left flank.
Overall, Smith Rowe leaving Arsenal to Fulham definitely makes sense for all parties involved and if he hits his 2021/22 form again, we could be looking at a proper attacking weapon under Marco Silva. This is the beginning of a new chapter for the England international whom at just the age of 24 could still develop into that special or world-class player he was once dubbed to become.
By: Moses Adikwu / @Moe_Adikwu
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Chloe Knott – Danehouse – Getty Images