Arsenal’s next one-club man is already one of their heroes

Having a player that starts and ends their career at one club is a rarity nowadays, but Arsenal has one player in their squad, who is open to doing that.

The Gunners are currently blessed with several players who have broken through from their academy.

Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe are two of the leading academy graduates currently in Mikel Arteta’s squad.

Both Englishmen are the envy of clubs around Europe and they would not lack takers if Arsenal places them on the transfer market.

But Smith Rowe isn’t thinking about leaving the Emirates and says he would remain at Arsenal for life if the club wants him to stay.

In a recent interview with Standard Sport, when asked if he wants to remain at Arsenal for the rest of his career, he says:

“I hope so, I definitely hope so. If Arsenal want me for the rest of my career, then I am going to stay here forever.

“It is always difficult [to stay at one club for your career], but for me personally I’d love to be here forever.

“For me it was easy [to sign a new contract with Arsenal]. Obviously it didn’t look like that from the outside, it looked quite difficult.

“For me, playing for Arsenal, growing up an Arsenal fan and my family around me, it was easy. Growing up in London, I didn’t want to move out of London. It was probably one of the easiest decisions I’ve made.”

Smith Rowe is one bedrock of this Arsenal team and he could remain at the Emirates for at least the next decade.

However, staying at the same club for the rest of your career isn’t so straightforward because it requires you to remain in the plans of every manager the club appoints.

If Mikel Arteta is sacked and replaced with a new boss who doesn’t think Smith Rowe fits his system, the Englishman could be sold by the club.

Arsenal fans would love to see him remain at the club forever, but it would also require that his level of performance doesn’t drop.

Tags Emile Smith Rowe

9 Comments

  1. Hopefully we stay and he wants to stay. The good thing is we seem to like managers who play a certain style and may that continue. Players like Emile and Bakayo for that mould, just like Jack does but he was a very silly boy and he learned the hard way.

  2. His main concern must remain ,right now, on progressing and grow up as a player .If he end up coming good as it looks ,staying for a lifelong career will not bé a problem….Otherwise Wilshere sadly is a bad example of a wishful thinking….

  3. there’s certainly no questioning ESR’s desire and/or drive, now he must work on the finer points of his game that are presently lacking…this is obviously not a dig direct towards him, as most players are still in the developmental stage of their footballing careers at his age…fact remains, he has some very raw aspects to his game, with the ball at his feet, that can undoubtedly be honed on the training pitch…my only concern is that the oft-times robotic nature of MA’s tactics don’t seem to nurture some of the finishing skills he needs to address…for me he simply needs a little more DeBruyne in his game to balance out some of his obvious younger Scholes traits, but I’m certainly elated by the possibilities

  4. Had we recruited Buendia or Maddison instead of Odegaard, they would most likely play ahead of Smith-Rowe

    Smith-Rowe is a better long ball receiver than them on the left wing

  5. Ad Martin states certain obvious things you may think, though rightly, IMO.

    BUT he NEEDS to say those things, as footballers careers in todays top level are often so short lived at one club.

    Decades ago, one club men were very common, but how many of todays younger and elite players such as ESR, actually WILL end their careers at the club they began!! Very few, I’d say!

    I doubt whether a single GOONER ANYWHERE will not pray that he stays here for his whole career and if he did that would surely be a massive plus for our future hopes.

    But very sadly, that would be, these days, a comparative rarity. He is of course a massive true Gooner and a very grounded and, for his tender age, a most mature and likeable young man.

    On a separate, though related tack I, massively agree with the clubs policy, albeit only a recent one, of promoting our best youth players.
    However, that does not mean giving games to ALL promising academy players simply because they are still young.
    You MUST be good enough too and that is sometimes forgotten by some on here, IMO.

    We have the youngest average age in the PREM and that policy is IMO caused by the clear failure in quite a few recent years going back , of either older OR well known names who were brought in amid some fanfare but who flopped spectacularly, because they were merely mercenaries passing through.

    I will now lose agreement with many, when I name the single biggest mercenary failure who was just passing through, in Ozil .

    Yes, he took some seven long years to “pass through” but look at his ahem, cough cough, “output” across at least the last five of those years and the huge financial inducement to stay , stupidly agreed – and under fan pressure too – please remember, by the club.

    SOME Gooners refused to see his obvious laziness and lack of heart that I saw so very early on and foolishly pressured the club into that last, long, damaging contract!

    But, though that ship has now sailed, thankfully, we still reap the financial hit of paying him all that dough for so very little return. I FOR ONE DO NOT FORGET THAT!!

    We must NEVER AGAIN make this sort of calamitous mistake and under THIS manager, I believe we will NOT make it again and hurray for that.

    I believe that painful lessons from many past mistakes, by out last three full time managers to date, are now and finally, albeit years too late, being learned.

    Offering young ESR a new contract for at leaat 6 years , preferably more, would be a good move IMO, as he is only going to continue his remorseless improvement AND it would cement our clubs correct recent conversion to encouraging our best young players to stay.

    Before awarding a long term contract though, you need financial safeguards written into the contract, against long term injury( Diaby, Wilshere etc!!). AND you need to first deeply assess the character of the player.

    There is IMO, ALL the difference in the world between the character of ESR and Ozil.

    In any case, we cannot hope to compete with Man City, Chelsea and probably soon even Newcastle, in the transfer market, so what other real choice do we have!

    1. Arsenal could complete against those clubs if we were better at identifying players in the transfer market.

      This year recruitment was excellent; Lokogna, Tavares, Tomi, Ramsdale. Great job identifying the young players.

      Arsenal has the financial means to bring in a top top level player £75-£80 million, however we can’t afford them to flop.

      That is the difference for me, those top players have to produce immediately for Arsenal. Chelsea could get Lukaku when Werner wasn’t scoring like they thought.

      Arsenal can’t afford £150 million or more 2 consecutive years for a single position like that.

  6. I doubt if either Saka or ESR will end their careers at Arsenal but if that were the case then it would be good to be wrong. Not that I’m sure that I will even be around then. Still it’s early days. The two will need to be nurtured carefully as well as given additional support by the club signing a big name player who can take the pressure off them. Also the introduction of Patino will add to the mix. At the same time who knows where the Kroenkes stand. They come from a sporting culture where trading and wheeler dealing is the norm. Would they not be tempted in the future by the urge to sell their two most valuable current assets. No doubt the big four will be circling soon.

  7. It would be great if ESR stays at Arsenal forever nothing like it. A fantastic player who can only improve, he has Arsenal in his DNA and so also does Saka.

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