Arsenal: Aston Villa confident of £32.5m Emile Smith Rowe transfer

Dear Aston Villa, please stop what you’re doing with Emile Smith Rowe. Sincerely, Arsenal Football Club.

Yes, indeed, it appears as if the Villans are pushing ahead with their dream to sign Emile Smith Rowe as Dean Smith’s side prepare to lodge a third bid in their efforts to lure the 20-year-old north from a team that was north of them in last season’s Premier League table.

This is quite a serious approach from Aston Villa. An impressive one in many ways, and a true demonstration of their ambition. They should nonetheless quit while they are ahead.

Having tried twice to tempt Arsenal’s hand, the first a derisory £25m offer and the second a whopping £5m more, the Gunners told their top-flight rivals that have absolutely no intention of selling their Hale End graduate.

Aston Villa confident of £32.5m Emile Smith Rowe signing from Arsenal with third bid expected during summer transfer window

The Athletic reported that Smith Rowe remains the top target at Villa Park and that they ‘don’t seem to be going away’, and if the latest edition of the Sunday Mirror (as relayed by Birmingham Mail) is to be believed then that’s about to return in the form of a £32.5m bid.

It’s added that Villa are receiving encouragement by the noises surrounding this move that Arsenal will be open to selling Smith Rowe if the right offer is made.

From having no intention of selling to being open to a deal all because of an extra £2.5m? Somehow that is extremely hard to believe. James Benge even claimed that sources from within Arsenal suggest not even triple the second bid would be enough to tempt them to sell.

A third offer does seem in the pipeline from Villa but surely Arsenal will have informed them upon their first and second bids that Smith Rowe is not for sale at any price. Firstly, to think that the second offer would turn the tide was far-fetched and if the third is as meagre as reported, there will be no sudden change.

As for Smith Rowe, the move doesn’t make any sense for him. He’s playing for his boyhood club, in his home city and under a manager who has unwavering faith in him. Considering Arsenal had their worst season in his lifetime and still finished above Villa in the table, this path doesn’t take move him up the football pyramid which, if he ever were to leave north London, it would have to be.

Arsenal are building their team around players like Smith Rowe and while he’s yet to sign a new deal, it would constitute a major shock if he didn’t. In any case, he isn’t going to be sold. Not for £32.5m.

Famous last words? Impossible.