In the last three games he’s been available for Fulham, Emile Smith Rowe hasn’t started. Similarly, Eddie Nketiah hasn’t started in the last eight fixtures he’s been available for Crystal Palace.
You might be wondering why I’m highlighting the game time of these two ex-Gunners. Well, the duo seem to have settled as bench options for Palace and Fulham.
One might ask, why did they leave Arsenal in the first place?
Mikel Arteta admitted not long ago that they entered this season with one of the thinnest squads.
Looking at Smith Rowe or Nketiah, I’ve often thought they would have been useful on our bench many times this season. Given how we really needed and still need more attacking talent, it feels dire. Nketiah would have been better off being a sub at Arsenal.
You can’t convince me that while Martin Odegaard was out injured for around six weeks, Emile Smith Rowe wouldn’t have been given a chance to play. And how many times have Arsenal needed a game-changing substitute in attack to win the game but failed because they didn’t have an out-and-out striker like Eddie Nketiah to bring on board?
The grass is not always greener on the other side.
Would you rather be a bench option at a club like Arsenal, fighting for the league and Champions League, or go to a club that only yearns to compete in the Premier League?
Hopefully, this winter, Arsenal will be bold enough to finally replace Nketiah and Smith Rowe. After letting them go, the club certainly didn’t adequately replace them. Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling just don’t offer what the duo would on a good day.
That said, hopefully, Nketiah and Smith Rowe step up in their new clubs. We need them to shine. In fact, it would be comforting for us to be linked with their services in the near future.
Daniel O
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Nketia is trash and good riddance. Letting ESR go was a big mistake.
@Emile Hattier
I don’t see ESR helping Fulham much. Tell me how could he have helped us.
We let them go but did we replace them with better? Surely thats the plan.
Reggie,
I totally agree, to have justified the sale of the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Arteta needed to replace with better.
Something he has clearly failed to do, and continues to do.
Every season that he’s been at the club, we’ve needed better cover for Saka, something Arteta has continually failed to address adequately.
And for the last three seasons, the team has been screaming out for a proper number 9, again something Arteta refuses to address.
But instead of making him accountable, lets do what some fans always do.
And that is blame the referee, that’s a lot easier isn’t it.🙄🤦♂️
We let them go in order to improve the financial status of the club which was tethering on the brink. Which made it unfeasible to invest a lot more.
So, let me get this right. We let ESR go on 60k a week, brought in Merino on 150k a week. We let Nketiah 100k a week, go and brought in Sterling whom we are reportedly paying at least 100k a week. And thatcwas to make us in a better financial state. Total hogwash.
We sold Nketiah for 30 mil and bought Merino for 31.7 mil.
Ah hindsight, a wonderful thing, so in hindsight was it a good idea to dump Wenger? Obviously a rhetorical question!
@GB
Or Unai for that matter…Just sayin 🤔
Regardless of his record in Spain or his role at PSG, Emery should have done better at Arsenal. He had an excellent first season at Villa but it’s not quite so good now. Why should we have kept him on NYG?
@Sue P
It was in response to GB’s post about hindsight. I just threw Unai in there. And it’s only Unais second season in charge and so far he’s not doing too bad, considering the team he has.
get real everyone – ESR hardly did anything in last 2 years with Arsenal, and hardly set the world on fire at Fulham, not even an automatic starter at Fulham 6 months in says it all really
and please stop bleating on about Wenger and Emery as absolutely irrelevant to season 2024/25
@Arsenal1886
Real Talk…👍🏾
ESR has played quite a few games for Fulham but he hasn’t set the world on fire. I didn’t want to see him go but he hasn’t got close to achieving the level I thought he could get to, yet at least. Nketiah is a nearly man and always will be. He seems like one of those players that maybe too good for the Championship but not good enough for the PL. In essence, neither are a big loss.