Rejected Iwobi and Smith Rowe giving Arsenal and Fulham reason to believe

“You’re the future, man. I felt it from the first day. Number 10, captain in the future.” Granit Xhaka knew it. Everyone who saw Emile Smith Rowe play from the moment he joined the Arsenal academy at the age of nine knew it. Problem was, there came a point when Smith Rowe had to stop being the future and that’s how Smith Rowe ends up walking out to play against Arsenal, for someone else, on Sunday afternoon.

He’s not the only one. Fulham host Arsenal at Craven Cottage with four ex-Arsenal players in their ranks. Bernd Leno will be in goal. Smith Rowe and Alex Iwobi will be in midfield. Reiss Nelson is injured, but would not have been able to play under the terms of his loan. It is these last three, all graduates of Hale End in east London, who tell the real story: of the Arsenal that was, Arsenal as it became, the Arsenal that might yet be.

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It was Iwobi who combined with a 17-year-old Smith Rowe for his first Arsenal goal, against Qarabag in the Europa League. It was Nelson whom Smith Rowe would describe in a matchday programme interview as the worst dancer at the club. It was Smith Rowe whom Nelson would later, in turn, describe as the teammate “most likely to cancel plans at the last minute”.

They shared freezing dressing rooms, long bus trips, Instagram stories and WhatsApp banter, growing tightly around each other as only teenagers with a shared dream can. They would be identified with some of the most famous moments in Arsenal’s recent history: Nelson’s winning goal against Bournemouth, Smith Rowe’s performance in the 2020 Boxing Day win over Chelsea that may well have salvaged the entire Mikel Arteta project.

Iwobi arrived at Fulham in the summer of 2023 and has had perhaps the toughest journey of the lot. Four years earlier, he had signed for Everton, a new chapter, an emerging team Marco Silva had promised to build around him. Instead, Silva was sacked, Carlo Ancelotti played him out of position, Rafa Benítez barely played him at all, Everton fans let him know exactly what they thought of him. In his lowest moments Iwobi would put on a disguise, travel to Manchester and play seven-a-side with his mates just to enjoy football again.

The arrival of Frank Lampard brought an upturn in fortunes and a move from the wing to a more creative role in the centre of the pitch. Iwobi helped keep Everton up in 2022 and when Silva came calling again in 2023 he was ready. Now 28, finally established not as a winger but as a driving attacking midfielder, he is having one of the best seasons of his career.

In recent years Fulham have successfully managed to convert themselves into a sort of second-chance saloon, an island of lost toys, a sanctuary for young or peak-age players who have fallen out of the elite, been written off, but still believe. Fifteen of the squad have Champions League experience. But only two (Leno and Raúl Jiménez) can boast more than 10 appearances in the competition. Nobody has won a major trophy or a “big five” league title. This is a squad who have tasted the big time, breathed the rarefied air of the big stage. But not for long enough to be satisfied.

To Iwobi, Andreas Pereira, Calvin Bassey and Adama Traoré can be added Smith Rowe and Nelson. Of all Arsenal’s recent departures it is Smith Rowe’s that stings hardest: a genuine gamechanging player, yet modest and relatable with it.

He ran into injuries at just the wrong time, as the project was accelerating and Martin Ødegaard was blossoming. In the blink of an eye he went from 21 to 24. At which point Silva called, promising to build an attack around him.

“In the end, players have to play,” Arteta said and this season Smith Rowe has done far more than that. Three goals and two assists, combining effortlessly with Iwobi in the final third, working ruthlessly without the ball, propelling Fulham into European contention. Nelson has found his chances more limited but also broken into the first team in recent weeks.

So here they are: the Arsenal midfield that could have been, forged in north London and now ripping it up on the banks of the Thames. There were sound footballing reasons behind the decision to let them go, as with the departure of Eddie Nketiah to Crystal Palace on deadline day. All were finding first-team opportunities harder to come by in a rapidly evolving squad. Smith Rowe had two years left on his contract and it was the time to cash in.

But there are other considerations. Homegrown players ground a club, give them a sense of emotional purpose, give supporters a point of reference, give age-group starlets a reason to stay and challenge themselves, give prospective signings a target to emulate, give coaches a success to put on their CVs, give owners and chief executives a reason to invest. In a fluid, transitory profession, their absence is felt keenest of all.

“I’m not going to lie, I’ve missed them a bit,” Bukayo Saka said this season of his departed colleagues. “Since I came into the first team they were like my big brothers.”

Much of this value is intangible. You can’t amortise it or log it for profit and sustainability purposes so the fate of their best young prospects is one way when a club can tell us who they are. What are Arsenal telling us right now?

One thing it doesn’t necessarily tell us is that Arsenal are turning their back on the academy or converting it into a cash machine like so many other clubs have done. Indeed, one of the direct beneficiaries of Smith Rowe’s departure will be the brilliant 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, who has made seven Premier League appearances off the bench this season. On one level, this is simply the circle of life.

But this is a wiser and more ruthless club than they were even just a couple of years ago, more of a cold, hard winning machine. Perhaps the biggest difference between then and now is in terms of patience. No longer are Arsenal sailing towards some distant horizon, investing towards some imagined return. This is the horizon. This is the return. Or as Smith Rowe put it to Xhaka all those years ago: “It’s not about the future, bro. It’s about now.”