Emile Smith Rowe: Arsenal Career on Death Rowe

[BigPoppaPump]

I don’t blame him tbf I think ESR is overrated by our fans. No way is he a 40m player and the type of player we should be building our team around.

Saying it with my chest that we should have sold him when we had the chance to.

I said it weeks ago that I wouldn’t mind selling for 40m maybe we could get 45m. He’s a good player but he’s not that guy the way people act like he is. Arsenal fans just get too attached to young players.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

I feel like people will be forced to adjust their expectations with this guy much like we’ve had to do for Martinelli and Pepe shortly after his 72 mil transfer.

On this forum there is some variance about how much we rate him, but as far as the media, journos and pundits are concerned, he’s 100% overrated.

Martin Tyler and Martin Keown have compared him to a young Ronaldo at different times, so yes the ratings don’t quite match the ability.

He should really be a starter in this team however, so please don’t confuse this as me sh*tting on the guy, I’m not.

He doesn’t start in my best 11.

 

[Macho]

I said it weeks ago that I wouldn’t mind selling for 40m maybe we could get 45m. He’s a good player but he’s not that guy the way people act like he is. Arsenal fans just get too attached to young players.

Seeing what we do in the transfer market with 40-50m it would have been a horrible mistake to sell him.

As for the starting 11, I would never start him ahead of either Saka or Pepe ever. ESR would get in my midfield though personally.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Seeing what we do in the transfer market with 40-50m it would have been a horrible mistake to sell him.

As for the starting 11, I would never start him ahead of either Saka or Pepe ever. ESR would get in my midfield though personally.

Was it a horrible mistake to sell Iwobi or Oxlade-Chamberlain?

 

[Pyres7]

Nah, we need goals from Saka & ESR as well. I want them to have the confidence to shoot on sight like gunslingers. ESR made that chance as well, Pepe can f...k right off!

The right decision is to put Pepe through on goal there. Pepe should score 1v1 with the keeper.

ESR did well to make space for himself and get a decent shot away, but it's a much harder chance with a defender in front of him and much less of the goal to aim at. You expect the keeper to save it unless it's right in the top corner.

It's all part of the learning process though. Before I thought he was too quick to go for one touch passes without looking around, now he's taking extra touches when he doesn't need to. He just needs experience until he gets it right.

 

[Macho]

Was it a horrible mistake to sell Iwobi or Oxlade-Chamberlain?

No, I wasn't a fan of both.

Interesting you brought up Iwobi though, looking at the way Hale End are rated on here he would have been a rockstar because of his ball carrying ability if he was coming up today.

 

[Barry]

Seeing what we do in the transfer market with 40-50m it would have been a horrible mistake to sell him.

As for the starting 11, I would never start him ahead of either Saka or Pepe ever. ESR would get in my midfield though personally.

I wouldn't swap Ben White for ESR either. If a bid came in at £40-45m then I wouldn't have blamed the club for cashing in either though - that's real money. Villa only bid up to £25m in the end which is way under his value - look at the players we've been buying for that.

People are going to be impatient with our young players because they want results right now, and Arsenal are hurting now. But only the real outliers start hitting top form before 22 and that's for attacking players. Midfielders and defenders take even more time.

So if we had cashed in on ESR - like we did with Willock - it would be to buy a more experienced player that wouldn't need that development time. But the thing is we've tried it already. Pepe still needed time; Willian flopped hard. You look further back and we've had more success - Sanchez, Auba etc. My take on this is that we need to be realistic of where we are as a club right now. Those teenage gems are our best chance of getting back where we want to be, long term. We need to add experienced quality like Partey alongside them and if they stop developing pick the right time to sell.

 

[Barry]

@Pyres7 - It's easy to look at a stop frame of the match and say "at that particular point the best option was to pass to Pepe" but it's an over simplification. ESR has already committed to having a shot, he was focused on his burst of pace and may not have been set for a pass.

I get the point about decision making but I also think that if we want more goals from ESR he needs the confidence to have a go and shoot when he feels it's on. Ødegaard seems like Özil - a player whose natural instinct is the pass not the shot. If we have too many of those in the team we'll be in trouble.

 

[Macho]

My take on this is that we need to be realistic of where we are as a club right now. Those teenage gems are our best chance of getting back where we want to be, long term. We need to add experienced quality like Partey alongside them and if they stop developing pick the right time to sell.

Good point. However, despite harsh my criticism of Arteta one thing I do share with him is his reluctance to throw young players in harms way - he was very protective until that completely turned on it's head this summer.

Looking at things Arteta has said in the past, his team selections, how he is quick to downplay the likes of Saka, Martinelli etc - I 100% believe project youth is not his idea and not surprised this is an initiative pushed by the board looking at how the Rams is run.

One of my biggest gripes with Wenger was throwing in young players who couldn't carry the badge without leadership around them and it looks to be we are repeating this mistake in some ways. On tangent here now, but yeah I get leaning into the youth when our seniors aren't up to standards.

 

[Barry]

Good point. However, despite harsh my criticism of Arteta one thing I do share with him is his reluctance to throw young players in harms way - he was very protective until that completely turned on it's head this summer.

Looking at things Arteta has said in the past, his team selections, how he is quick to downplay the likes of Saka, Martinelli etc - I 100% believe project youth is not his idea and not surprised this is an initiative pushed by the board looking at how the Rams is run.

One of my biggest gripes with Wenger was throwing in young players who couldn't carry the badge without leadership around them and it looks to be we are repeating this mistake in some ways. On tangent here now, but yeah I get leaning into the youth when our seniors aren't up to standards.

I'm sure there are some quotes somewhere that backed this up - the youth push is a strategy of Vinai & Edu not Arteta. Don't think Arteta is as bad as some think re: youth though. He's frustratingly conservative sometimes but he has given them chances as well (except Saliba).

Agree about the Wenger stuff too. The annoying thing was that we were genuinely competitive back then. We didn't need to have such a reliance on young players but it was down to finances and the financial conservatism of the board.

 

[Trilly]

ESR and Pepe have poor chemistry imo, it’s like they aren’t on the same wavelength.

ESR doesn’t rate him, I’ve noticed him do similar things before. He would have passed it if it was Auba.

 

[2Smokeyy]

ESR doesn’t rate him, I’ve noticed him do similar things before. He would have passed it if it was Auba.

The ESR and Pepe beef is real. Is this you?

 

[Trilly]

Hahaha you're tripping here mate, Emile lifted our season last year with basically his first kick in the Premier League and he's already looked our brightest player (apart from maybe Partey & Pepe) in pre-season and the Prem this year.

He's 100% going to be a star, surely your eyes tell you that just by watching him?

I’ve been burnt too many times by players who look like they’re “100% going to be a star”.

Basically if they’re an attacker then the end product has to be there, that’s the only way to be relatively sure. Like I’ve said, I’ll make my judgement on him by the end of the season but the likes of Greenwood, Saka, Mount and Foden have shown a lot more.

Understandably those names are elite prospects but arsenal fans seem to put ESR in that category with no real explanation as to why. I was doing the same thing last year, realised and had to calm myself down.

Comments like “he just needs to work on his finishing” are reductive because it comes across like we are assuming that ESR doesn’t work on it while the other top talents like Foden and co are? I’m sure all these young talents are being coached/working on their game.

 

[Macho]

This pepe_19i account is not having it at all, he's worse than me

Atleast I know I'm not crazy.

 

[Barry]

ESR doesn’t rate him, I’ve noticed him do similar things before. He would have passed it if it was Auba.

Agenda-Mania in full flow again

 

[Barry]

I’ve been burnt too many times by players who look like they’re “100% going to be a star”.

Basically if they’re an attacker then the end product has to be there, that’s the only way to be relatively sure. Like I’ve said, I’ll make my judgement on him by the end of the season but the likes of Greenwood, Saka, Mount and Foden have shown a lot more.

Understandably those names are elite prospects but arsenal fans seem to put ESR in that category with no real explanation as to why. I was doing the same thing last year, realised and had to calm myself down.

Comments like “he just needs to work on his finishing” are reductive because are we assuming he doesn’t while Foden and co are? I’m sure all these young talents are being coached/working on their game.

Mount is two years older though. Foden a year older. You're not comparing like with like. Need to give him the time, he's awesome, he'll be at that level or close in two years.

 

[Trilly]

No, I wasn't a fan of both.

Interesting you brought up Iwobi though, looking at the way Hale End are rated on here he would have been a rockstar because of his ball carrying ability if he was coming up today.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the future because Iwobi was/is an elite ball carrier he just couldn’t do much else. I rate breakthrough Iwobi similarly to how I rate ESR right now.

It’s all about pushing on and adding end product now to show you’re a top attacking prospect or dropping back into the midfield and using your skills to become a no8 type. I wish we had tried this with Iwobi because he could have been a Kovacic type with a bit of work and luck.

 

[Trilly]

Mount is two years older though. Foden a year older. You're not comparing like with like. Need to give him the time, he's awesome, he'll be at that level or close in two years.

Mount is two years older now but won Chelsea’s player of the season when he was a year younger.

Foden was city’s top scorer I think last season when he was ESR’s age. Sancho is another one that’s only three months older than ESR and he’s had three 30 g+a seasons in a row albeit in a weaker league but still, 30+!

They’re all close enough in age to compare, nobody makes those excuses for Saka and Greenwood who are the babies of the group.

 

[Macho]

I rate ESR higher than I did Iwobi and I was pleased with his sale. Shout outs to Raul man.

 

[Barry]

It will be interesting to see what happens in the future because Iwobi was/is an elite ball carrier he just couldn’t do much else. I rate breakthrough Iwobi similarly to how I rate ESR right now.

It’s all about pushing on and adding end product now to show you’re a top attacking prospect or dropping back into the midfield and using your skills to become a no8 type. I wish we had tried this with Iwobi because he could have been a Kovacic type with a bit of work and luck.

Yeah, we were right to sell Iwobi because the offer was good and he lacked end product. I always thought he'd be better playing deeper as well though. Don't think he's set the world alight at Everton though.