It was good to read this week that Emile Smith Rowe suffers pre-match nerves. Not that we want him to be a quivering wreck before games but because it helps answer a question that many supporters have been asking. What’s happened to him and why hasn’t he been selected until this week? ‘I used to have a lot of doubts. I used to question my confidence, at times,’ he’s quoted as saying. And what’s even more of a relief is he’s gone on to say, ‘The gaffer has really helped me with that. He was helping me through my injury and often pulled me for chats about how I can be mentally stronger.’
When an ex-youth player is absent from the first team line-up as he’s been, it’s always puzzling as to what’s going on. One tends to suspect something wrong with the player’s relationship with the Manager or something else. And in all my years of supporting Arsenal, one of the worst issues has been what I call home-grownitus. If you come from the academy, you get less of a chance than if you’ve been brought in from outside for loadsamoney.
Over the many years, I’ve watched many a bright young player promoted to the edge of the first team and then, just when it seems a breakthrough is imminent, a big-money signing closes the window of opportunity. It’s easy to see why. Signings are for ‘now’ and the thirst for immediate success is almost insatiable. There’s little time for the homegrown talent to develop, so it’s natural to go for the proven player. Didn’t Arsene Wenger used to say that young players come with a caveat of lost points through inexperience?
Yet having watched a player through the youth ranks, seen what they can do at lower levels, then stall – and often depart – can be incredibly frustrating, at least for the supporters who watch their development through the academy. And when they do break through, it can be infinitely more satisfying to see ‘one of our own’ creating the headlines. Take Bukayo Saka as a case in point. Had Pepe turned in the kind of performances that warranted his huge price tag, he might now be a permanent fixture on the right wing. Which means Saka may have been confined to bit parts, filling in defence, warming the bench, going out on loan, never having the chance to establish himself as one of the best – potentially most complete – players the club has produced in recent history. And spin it back a couple of decades, remember Sylvinho – who had joined the club on an EU passport and then (to quote Tribalfootball.com) ‘swiftly moved out of Arsenal under a cloud in 2001 when authorities in Lisbon said they had no records of his dual Portuguese nationality’? Had he stayed – he had been in the PFA team of the year in his first season – he would have blocked that position for years to come and a young, promising left back might never have played for Arsenal. Who knows where Ashley Cole – for it is he who benefitted from the vacant slot – might have ended up? (We all know where he did, but not before being a crucial cog in Arsene Wenger’s best years.) And you can probably think of others.
Young players’ opportunities seem to be blocked
So big money purchases can seem like a block to young players, and it is immensely frustrating when, as a supporter, you put a lot of investment in them to see them wither away and leave. Joe Willock was one and it seemed that Smith Rowe might be another. Recent midfield berths were in short supply once a big money signing from Real Madrid came in and occupied the slot that gave spawned the Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe song (cue a verse of Rockin’ All Over The World in your head). But then, you can hardly say bringing in Martin Ødegaard was a bad decision! Which is the manager’s dilemma. He has difficult choices to make. Which brings us back to Emile’s loss of confidence, that he puts down to the extended period out of the squad through repeated injuries and consequential navel-gazing. What is reassuring is that he’s attributing restoration of fitness and faith in his abilities down to support from the manager, not being frozen out by names that came with a chequebook tag.
Which brings us back to a perennial supporter problem – we see only a fraction of what goes on behind the scenes. And while ex-academy players Krystian Bielik (who seems to be storming it at Birmingham City) and Stephy Mavididi (rampant for Leicester City, apparently), can we say we should have waited for them rather than what we have now? It’s clear we can’t always trust what we think we see on the pitch at the training centre and U23 matches at the Emirates! The next test will be players like Ethan Nwaneri and Charles Sagoe Jr!
As for Emile, he says, ‘Being at a massive club like Arsenal, we know there is so much competition. It is always going to be difficult to cement your place in the team. It is just an extra push for me to keep working hard, keep fighting,’ thanking Mikel Arteta for his help and adding, ‘I have just got to keep believing in myself,’ And not being held back by big-money signings.
AISA is focussing on the academy and what it’s like coaching and being a youth player when we meet Roy Massey and Adrian Clarke on October 12th. To guarantee your place and a free member’s drink, contact us at events@aisa.org. Or register for a Zoom link.