Arsenal: Emile Smith Rowe loan a bummer, but sensible

Arsenal are gearing up to loan out Emile Smith Rowe again, which is a bummer, but all things considered, it had to be done.

Arsenal‘s youth movement is exciting, and we were kind of lead to believe it was in the now. That these young guys, particularly the big four (Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka and Joe Willock) were ready for first team involvement.

That Cinderella belief is fading away pretty quickly. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Dani Ceballos arrival was a big cause for this rupture in the youth movement. His abilities in the No. 10 role have put a damper on the youth options, particularly Willock and Smith Rowe.

And not surprisingly, right on the backs of that move was news that Emile Smith Rowe may be loaned out to RB Leipzig after all.

Leipzig had him for half of last year, but an injury kept him from making much of an impact. However, he made such an impression that they were chomping at the bit to get him back for this season.

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Originally, it seemed like a bad idea. We needed him to fill the gaps where we weren’t making signings. But now that players are arriving, it only makes sense that Smith Rowe take the year to actually play first-team football rather than sit and watch Ceballos chip in a ten and ten season.

The other issue is the continued presence of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil. I completely seriously said at the start of the summer that I would rather sell Micky and Ozil and buy no one, letting the youth fill in their bit-part roles, then see Micky and Ozil stay and block our youth movement, but I didn’t get my wish. Ozil and Micky are staying, and that means they will have to get opportunities because we aren’t paying them to sit there in suits and frown.

There’s just too much to navigate through for someone that needs to be using this time on the pitch. We saw how much it helped Reiss Nelson last year, and I’d suspect it can do the same for Smith Rowe this year. He has just as much talent and it’s clearly a good fit, given how much Leipzig want him back despite how little he was able to do last year.

It’s a bummer, because we all want to see our young phenoms thrive in the here and now, but it’s part of life, and it’s smart.