Due to the fact that he parted ways with his childhood club Arsenal during the summer, Emile Smith Rowe is currently on track to have the most productive season of his career as a senior player. There is a sense of irony that one of their own is flourishing in southwest London, given that Mikel Arteta’s team is currently lacking in midfield players at the same time.
Despite the fact that he has played an additional match at the time of this writing, Smith Rowe has already scored more goals than any of his former teammates this season. This is despite the fact that he was transferred to Fulham after spending two seasons in footballing purgatory where he earned the Gunners £34 million. The beginning of his time at Craven Cottage has been fruitful, as he has scored two goals and provided one assist in his first five league matches for the team coached by Marco Silva.
It had been 31 games since he had scored for Arsenal, and it had been 38 games for his last two goals. There is a possibility that there is some regret within the camp regarding the fact that such a talented player did not reach their full potential at the Emirates Stadium while Martin Odegaard is still sidelined.
Arteta and Smith Rowe were unable to achieve their goals because it was simply not meant to be. Due to injuries and his poor form, he was unable to spend as much time in north London, where there was an increasing number of competitors vying for starting positions.
During the final two years of Smith Rowe’s tenure at Arsenal, the club also acquired players such as Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard, and eventually Raheem Sterling, in addition to Mikel Merino. Additionally, Odegaard was brought in earlier in order to improve the quality of the attacking positions. Nevertheless, there is no going back on this decision.
At Fulham’s match against Newcastle on Saturday, Smith Rowe was at the centre of everything that went well (and at one point, went poorly) for the team. When the 24-year-old player picked up the ball in the middle of the box and ran towards it, he delivered an outstanding strike that hit the crossbar. He required very little backlift in order to get a shot off.
After that, he went one step further by taking a deft touch inside the box and forcing the ball underneath Nick Pope after he had poked the ball in a neat manner. It was a good day for Smith Rowe, despite the fact that he was fortunate enough to avoid being punished for failing to get onto Bernd Leno’s poor goal kick.
It is possible that this will have repercussions for Arsenal in the future as well. Due to the fact that they included a 10% sell-on clause in Smith Rowe’s contract, the Gunners have the potential to benefit from his future success.
The fact that there is no buyback option included in the deal is something that football.london is aware of. In the event that Smith Rowe is able to achieve the levels that he promised in the Hale End academy, then this could come back to bite Arsenal. However, for the time being, they can take pleasure in the success of a former player, knowing that a significant move in the years to come would result in a significant sum of money being made available to them as compensation.
