Arsenal’s newest sensation Emile Smith-Rowe is giving Arsenal fans the jitters by not coming to an agreement with the Gunners on a new contract extension, to secure that our academy graduates (and Martinelli!) stay together to form the spine of our team for the forseeable future.
Arteta has already persuaded Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Falorin Balogun to sign on the dotted line, and everyone believes that Kieran Tierney is also expected to sign again when he returns from his adventures at the Euros with Scotland.
But, not for the first time, we are hearing that Smith-Rowe is still nowhere near joining that bunch as of yet.
The Guardian said in their report about Tierney’s contract last night: “Now that Tierney’s future is secure, Arsenal hope Emile Smith Rowe will sign new terms. They rejected an opportunistic bid from Aston Villa for the 20-year-old attacking midfielder this week but are yet to stave off further interest by reaching an agreement. Arteta also expects to make a number of signings and has had an opening bid rejected for the Brighton and England centre-back Ben White.”
Of course we all know that Smith-Rowe is a Gunner through and through, as the 20 year-old told fans himself in February when he said; “I cant really describe the feeling to be honest. Being an Arsenal fan from such a young age, getting an opportunity to help put on the Arsenal shirt and step out on that pitch, there’s really no better feeling for me.”
So maybe we are all worrying unneccesarily, but the fact is that his agent could persuade him to hold out for a much better deal, as seems to be happening a lot lately, so as long as we are waiting for any concrete news it is no wonder that we could be getting more and more worried as time goes on…