WOW! BREAKING NEWS: Emile Smith Rowe to join Fulham £35million deal!

The news I didn't want to hear, what I didn't want to happen, although I knew it was inevitable, you would have seen David Ornstein has dropped an exclusive on The Athletic and said Emil is on the verge of signing for Fulham Football Club. We knew it was going to happen. Game time has been limited. Difficult decisions need to be made. In general, he's been a young boy, probably joined us at anything from six, seven, eight years of age, to a teenager, to a young man, to a full grown adult people. He has known Arsenal for all his life, where he's probably had new girlfriends and different friends and whatnot. It's a necessary evil. Injuries are a big theme of Emil Smith-Rowe's time at Arsenal. Unfortunately, we need to make money. We need to bring money into this club to obviously advance in terms of new signings and get to where we need to get to. There is no need for sentiment. Apologies. And when you cut the romance around Emil Smith-Rowe, everybody knows me. I'm the biggest Smith-Rowe fan, the biggest Arsenal fan there is of Hay-Lynn. It needs to happen. He needs to go play first team football. We need to get money in, I guess, like that, really. I don't think Arsenal would want to sell him, but 35 odd million quid people, it probably is too much to turn down on a player who is our number 10 and a player that we all remember when he bursted on the scene, has two years left on his contract, people. This tells me that Smith-Rowe's a real G, to be fair, because many people got a sweet gig at Arsenal. I'm sure he wants to play. I'm sure he wishes things were different. But at the end of the day, you need to get outside your comfort zone, in which Fulham, under Marco Silva, doing what they need to be doing, really. And it would be a step in the right direction in that regard. Let's just hope they don't beat us, really, and Trulli will take four points off us like last season. And it's written in the stars. He probably scores against us and refuses to celebrate. Enough waffling, people. You can see my heart is bleeding. Which would be a record acquisition for Fulham and match Arsenal's biggest sale. Now, I think the first thing saying there is Arsenal need to get better as a football club at selling individuals. At the end of the day, respectfully to Fulham, they're not the biggest and got the deepest pockets. But from a sale point of view, we've made them smash their transfer record. For Cicero, he will cook. If the man stays fit, plays on a regular basis, you can get back in the England squad. You can show people what we're missing out, people. As much as I want Arsenal to succeed more than I want Emil Smith-Rowe, I want him to play to such the standard we sit there and say, why did we let this happen? Subject to a deal being struck by the club, Smith-Rowe must undergo a medical and finalised personal terms ahead of completing the proposed move. You would have seen him scoring and captaining Arsenal, apologies, in our last friendly before we went off to the US tour, which obviously there's going to have to be some logistics around that because he is currently with the boys in America. And actually, on the eve of doing this video, we will be kicking off against Bournemouth. So you could imagine after the game, Mikel Arteta will be asked about California and what's going on with Smith-Rowe. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder was also a target for Crystal Palace, but Fulham have manoeuvred themselves into a position to secure his services. Now, some of the Twitter ITKs have been saying Smith-Rowe has agreed personal terms with Fulham and he's spoken to Marco Silva. Smith-Rowe came through the Arsenal academy, meaning a sale would represent pure profit in their financial accounts. You throw potentially Reece Nelson to Leicester, which we found out today, and Keita is still linked with Marseille. We surely have to be bringing an attacking midfielder. Smith-Rowe, I don't know how Fulham will deploy him because he is versatile, but it doesn't seem that at Arsenal he was playing as a left winger like he was when he first burst on the scene. We all know he can play in the 10 and he did get an opportunity or two, literally an opportunity or two to play in that eight role, but he hasn't been bet on. The Athletic previously reported that Fulham had a £30 million bid rejected for Smith-Rowe, so we're hearing it's around £35 million. You'd imagine there'd be a sell-on clause. You'd imagine there might even be ways to take this up a level. At least he leaves as a success story really and truly. He was capped three times by the country. He's obviously played for Arsenal and come through Hay-Land. He's got 18 goals and 115 appearances, so you can leave with your head held high, essentially, people. But fundamentally, I'm sure if we were to look at it from a statistical point of view, the amount of minutes that Smith-Rowe has played, the amount of games he's played in the last two years for someone of his talent is unacceptable really and he's only made three Premier League starts since August of 2022. Lord knows when he last scored a goal for Arsenal Football Club. Now again, when you remove the romance, I would love to keep Smith-Rowe for the squad, but at the end of the day, he doesn't seem to be a significant option on that left-hand side where Gabriel Jesus can play there. Trosser obviously did well last season. Martinelli, he's probably the first choice on paper. In the midfield, let's not get hung up on specifics. Partey, Jorginho are more likely to play ahead of you. I guess the option of Kai Havertz, which we sure saw whether we like it or not, could be something. And you've still got Fabio Vieira in the ten where if Odegaard's not there, I'm sure a lot of us would bet on that. Maybe Zinchenko stays because of his ability to play in that role. So I wish Smith-Rowe all the best. It's been quite the busy day for Arsenal. People cried about Arsenal not doing any business and whether it's Reece Nelson to Leicester, Smith-Rowe obviously to Fulham, California coming into Arsenal and some other talking points in that regard. Who knows? For Smith-Rowe, I mean, for all of these players, really, the quicker you leave the club, if it's become apparently clear that you're departing, the better, really. You get into your new team, gel in, settle, do what you need to do in that regard. Kirill is still being linked to moves away as well, people. He's actually been linked with a move to Inter Milan, completely off-topic, but this also came out in relation to Arsenal. Apparently we've poached someone from Manchester City. If this will load, people, we've poached an analyst, Darren Rodgerson from Manchester City. Apparently Manchester City's elite development squad analyst Darren Rodgers is leaving the club to join Arsenal's first team. He's due to start working with Mikel Arteta's squad in the first few months of the upcoming season. He's been at Manchester City for three years following spells in the Sheffield United Rangers and Derby Academy. He spent a year working at City. He was promoted to their under-18s performance analyst before working with the elite development squad, the level below Pep Guardiola's first-team squad. So he's joining our first team. He was a level below at City. It's just normal career progression. He'll join Ben Chadwick, Arsenal's head of analysis, who also joined from City after holding the same position in the under-23s. So, you know, obviously football is a small world and a small network. Where Smith Rowe is concerned, people, no doubt some of you thought this needed to happen. Some of you are like me where it's extremely emotional. Let me know your thoughts, people, and check out the rest of the content because it's been a busy day where Arsenal's concerned. Zinchenko has spoken. You know, I've mentioned Reece Nelson and Smith Rowe. Kyrgios has been linked to Inter. The California stuff takes precedent and we've even found ways to poach non-playing staff. So I wish Smith Rowe all the best, man. You know what, for my Hay-Len guy, I'm going to have to sell you football manager. We have to have a shot for the guy, man. I'm too sentimental to be asking about Emil Smith Rowe. I've been saying he needs to leave from a, you know, non-sentimental point of view. But the Hottest Loves have the call. This ends, man. You know, it looks like it's done for Ramsdale. It looks like it's done for Smith Rowe. Kieran Tierney, we've been accepting that. It's been a tough one for some of, you know, the loyal lieutenants of recent years, man. But a quick shot for Smith Rowe. Cool. Don't rub out on the camera. But yeah, people, check out the rest of the content. This probably will come out before I start my watch along for the Bournemouth game. So if you are staying up, come and join me. And again, as usual, let me know your thoughts. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. And big up you lot for listening, man. Peace.