Under what circumstances can it be justified selling Smith Rowe?

Ambitious Aston Villa is showing Arsenal what it means to be seriously in business as a Premier League club.

The Villans have beaten the Gunners to the signature of Emi Buendia and it seems they aren’t done yet.

They have become even more daring and made a move for Emile Smith Rowe recently.

The Daily Mail says they tabled a £25million bid for the English youngster and, as should be, the Gunners rejected the offer.

Smith Rowe is negotiating a new deal at the Emirates with two more seasons left on his current contract.

As an Arsenal fan, I am happy that we have turned down the offer because it is hard to contemplate losing one of our best talents to a club like Villa.

However, did Arsenal reject the offer because he is untouchable or because the fee was too small?

In football, everyone has a price and I strongly believe that it includes Smith Rowe.

The report also says Real Madrid will want him as a part of Arsenal’s move for Martin Odegaard. 

Would you swap Smith Rowe for Odegaard? 

I do believe he has huge potential but what if we sell him now in exchange for Odegaard? Or cash in on him to land a top player like Manuel Locatelli. Do you think either scenario is acceptable?

An article from Ime

Tags Emile Smith Rowe

65 Comments

    1. Off the topic England or slower then arsenal and as for sterling he so bad and foden world class he far from it and southgate he as bad as mikel we will go out at round 2

  1. No, we must hang on to our talented young players, otherwise what is the point in having an academy?

    1. 👍 Arsenal would be selling its soul. Juniors who came through the ranks are normally more committed to the Club than imported mercenaries.
      The Club should be building on what it has and buying to fill the positions where they are deficient. They should only sell if they have a number of players competing for one position. That is not the case with ESR.

      1. 👍, well said Ozzie. You hit the nail on head. Young players coming through academy are soul of our team they should only be sold if they are not up to level but to sell a player who clearly shows the talent, ability and work rate that he belongs at the top it will be absolutely criminal to sell him. We are not in finencial difficulty as well to sell players. Young players who are talented even if they are brought from outside club should be handled appropriately, given chances and as they are young so they should be shown a bit of how do you say it forgiveness if they step out of line. They should be spoken to and should be given right advice because the purpose of clubs not just to treat these young players as some sort of commodity but also make them better person for society as for these kids club is like their second home/school. We have seen so many examples by our own club who have set youngsters on straight path not only in football but like RVP is one of a few examples.

        1. You and I are obviously kindred spirits!
          Unfortunately at the moment the fact that people are even discussing Arsenal selling ESR, Willock, Saliba, et al indicates that the life of this Club is being sucked out by those in charge.

    1. Selling ESR is not a good suggestion unless he want to leave.
      The transfer we need to sought out is not a difficult one, for intent, sign Grealish for 80million structured or 70 million straight away. Let Joe Willock come back as his Sub. Sign Yves Bissouma for 30M from Brighton to partner Partey. Sign Onana (GK) for 20M, Sign Neto for 30M from Wolves to make Pepe sit tight and close shop. We can also take freebies if there is any available with quality. Total of 150M well spent. Recoup investment by selling some players like AMN=20, Nketia=25, Mavropanos=15, Xhaka= 25, Elneny =10 . with the sale of some academy and fringe players = 5M, Total of 100M, Net spending of 50M. We can even by Kane from Tottenham for 150M, we can convince him , we are trophy bound, no need to change city, from Shirt sales and sponsorship, we can recover part of this money but it will be down to the prowess and negotiation skill of our club. But we have novices at the helm of affairs.

      1. Top players will not come here because we are not in Europe if they do it will be for the money

  2. This is a serious test of the Kroenke’s resolve and how serious they are about making us serious contenders for titles. Will they sell or keep to Arteta’s plan?

    1. If we sell Smith-Rowe we might as well pack up and go home now. I believe that he is already better than Odergaard and will go on to be an England regular. We need to hang on to our home grown talent.

      1. Well said Clive, I have always rated this kid. We have three outstanding youngsters, Tierney, Saka and ESR who we must keep. But who knows the thinking behind the scenes? We will know once the window closes.

  3. Yes. I love Smith Rowe but he has a ceiling of what he can achieve and let’s face it it’s lower than quite a few other players. The justification however, could only be that we are swapping him for a player with greater ability as well as potential. E.g. Grealish. That’s the level that it would be acceptable to me.
    Saka would be another story because his ceiling is very very high. He’s just as good as Foden and Grealish already.

    1. Having watched Smith Rowe from his youth days, there is far more to come, and he is nowhere near reaching his potential. He has only just established himself in the Arsenal team, but once he is taking free kicks and gets back to the running game he perfected at youth/under 23 level he will be awesome. Getting rid of Xhaka and Willian will definitely be of benefit as would putting Martinelli in the first team who has shown an almost telegraphic understanding with Smith Rowe when they have played together.

    2. I disagree Sir.
      If you watch Rowe’s youth games, you will realise he is only just acclimatising with the first team and will do exploits for the Club. Rowe will be as good as your Grealish in 12months time.

  4. You may sell because u want to land loca what if the other fails to grab form like partey. Its better to stick with him and add an option other than loosing what u see as good at the moment.

    1. Ivan, why has a world class rated player like Thomas Partey failed to perform to your and other’s expectations?
      Injury, time to acclimatise to a new league in a new country, lack of a pre season, manager’s tactics and team set up, lack of support in midfield by quality players or combination of all of the above?
      How about people give Thomas Partey a second full season, before we consign him to the scrap heap.

  5. If Arteta or Edu sanctioned the sale of ESR for any price, I would be done with them. I cannot support a management team that does not promote players who come through the ranks and prove themselves in the first team. What message would it send to other youngsters that are Arsenal fans and may want to follow in ESRs footsteps? Let’s not forget the greatest Arsenal sides were built on several young players coming through the ranks in the mid 80s.

  6. He should not be sold. We have a pool of talented young players to build a stronger squad. However, they should be careful on handling him a new lucrative contract. He hasn’t earned it yet. I don’t mean that they should not give him a new contract, rather they should not pay over the odds for it.

    Arsenal generous salaries problem should be the number one priority of problems to solve not adding to it. The generous salaries is the root cause of most of our players problem.

  7. We spend years meticulously developing top quality players like ESR and then sell them? Does not make sense. We should be supporting our young players strongly and giving them chances to perform. ESR should be at Arsenal for years. Watching how Martinelli and Saliba have been treated is pretty dismal too.

  8. Whilst firmly agreeing that every player has a price that makes him worth selling, the sale of ESR would prove a very damaging blow to the fan confidence in how our club is run by its owner, manager and Edu. (I realise of course that most fans on here already have zero confidence in all three!) Not to also mention the team AND team morale damage it would also cause

    Unless a totally riduiclous and unrealistic offer for ESR is received, say around £100mill – and it obviously won’t be, in this Covid finacial climate – we must put aside all thoughts of the massive own goal that his sale would become.

    As for Villas laughable offer, perhaps we could answer with simply a laughing emoji and no words needed! It would at least please those on here who love to indulge themselves with emojis in place of words ! Ugh!

    1. i think if Aston Villa is rude enough to offer us only 25 million ESR maybe we should return the favour and offer 10 million for Grealish.

  9. We have three players with great potential; Saka, Martinelli (if Arteta bears no grudges) and Smith-Rowe. They can’t flourish all at once and need established players around them. If Aston Villa want Smith-Rowe, then we should be looking at testing their resolve with a bid for Grealish in a player plus cash deal.

  10. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD WE SELL HIM. NOT IN A MILLION YEARS. NOT EVEN AT ANY PRICE.

  11. None! No not ever, never in fact, don’t even mention the possibility of selling ESR again, EVER!

  12. In my mind, there’s no deal that will be justification enough for Smith Rowe to be sold. Odegaard, for all his qualities, is inferior to ESR. Odegaard will definitely get much better, but I have trouble seeing him as more than just an upgrade on Ozil. ESR, on the other hand, I frankly believe is going to eclipse the level Grealish is in right now. He is a much harder worker, energetic and covers every blade of grass and has the ability to lift the entire team. Odegaard has none of those qualities; he is just good at link-up play and ball retention, and that’s about it.

    I wouldn’t sell ESR for anyone. I don’t care if it’s Grealish, Buendia, Foden, James Maddison, Mbappe, or any other top young player. Maybe I’d consider selling him for a Ronaldo or Messi—if they were suddenly 23 years old again, and even then, I’d only swap him for these two names but with a buy back clause. My point is I really want to see this kid succeed at Arsenal. I really do.

  13. Under no circumstances, save an absolutely astronomical offer that simply isn’t coming at this point in his career. Even if it did, I’d still feel remorse about selling him. He was arguably the most important player on the team last year and he will only get better. Plus, it’s so positive for the young academy guys to see players like him and Saka succeeding in the squad.

  14. NONE!!!
    There is no way to think about it and find a justification. None what so ever.

  15. None whatsoever….wish he could see all the comments on here…

    pure love for the lad…

    he is would be at the top longer than Saka and martinelli in my opinion , due to his hard work / slow and steady rise to stardom…

    he would prolly captain arsenal and england someday like the Gerrards and lampards did

  16. To say there’s no way he should be sold is a tad unrealistic, in that if we were offered a ridiculous sum or if he was unwilling to extend with us and we were going to lose another player on a free it would be irresponsible of any organization not to have a rethink…if United can sell Ronaldo, then anyone is available at the right price or under the right set of circumstances

    personally, I wouldn’t sell him unless the abovementioned criteria were met, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Arteta doesn’t really rate ESR in the same manner as many of us fans do…not to mention, when he pursued Ode, ESR was shoehorned out wide, which is a clear indication of our manager’s thoughts on ESR’s viability as a centrally positioned midfielder…furthermore, I’m sure Mikel’s seemingly fragile ego took a bit of a beating when he was forced into playing him, due to an overabundance of injuries/covid-related issues, then he performed so admirably, which resulted in him being slated for not selecting him earlier

    1. I have to agree with you yet again 😂
      Personally the only 2 players that I wouldn’t ever even imagine being sold would be saka and Martinelli from the young group of players we have in the first team , but that does not mean I do not rate ESR But I suppose that’s my own views and other fans see different .

  17. They are going on about Tierney being sold now …. No chance, no way. It is difficult enough to get proven talent, there’s no way we’re letting it go. Why all this talk when the people we should be letting go Willian Kroenke et al are not being talked about at all.

  18. Well, one player that represents the real image of the “English Hype” is JACK GREALISH; a player with modest talent portrayed to be the next coming of Iniesta.

    SMITH-ROWE falls in the same category. Modest talent, heart. However along with WILLOCK, he has that “sharpness” in the final third that we clearly require.

    However, the fact that he usually plays on the left of midfield, the task is finding a suitable partner on the right side. And frankly, there are very few midfielders who are comfortable playing on the right.

    If we decide to keep him, then Arsenal has to recruit an out and out CENTRAL MIDFIELDER (NEVES/BISSOUMA etc) and effectively shift THOMAS PARTEY to the right.

  19. ESR is pure talent, but Arteta being Arteta will trust Odegaard more as a CAM. i still think they can play together with Maddison as #10 just like KDB and Bernard Silva or Mount and Pulisic. i believe that was the approach Arteta used against Chelsea at Stamford. it somehow worked. For me i think ESR was impacful whereas Saka was effective..

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