It was around August last year that a catchy new Arsenal chant celebrating one of the talismanic figures of Mikel Arteta’s young team began to ring around the concourses at the Emirates Stadium.
The song was a riff on Voulez-Vous by ABBA and its subject was Bukayo Saka, the jewel in the club’s crown and a boyhood Gooner living the dream of every Arsenal supporter. The 22-year-old has already made 226 first-team appearances for the club he joined at the age of seven. He is the embodiment of a homegrown hero. It was about time he had his own terrace anthem.
“Bukayo, Saka!
“Running down the wing, Saka!
“Hear the Arsenal sing, Saka!
“We are gonna win the league!“
Except, he already had one, shared with another Hale End success story: Emile Smith Rowe.
Arteta’s managerial spell at Arsenal spans just five years yet it has already encompassed three different mini eras.
The first stage was defined by pragmatism when Arteta led a squad built for Unai Emery to an FA Cup; then came the great rebuild with high-earning, under-performing thirty-somethings moved on and replaced by bright up-and-comers; now we are in the evolution phase with Arsenal repositioning themselves as a major force in the domestic and European game.
Saka and Smith Rowe were the two central pillars of that promise-packed second period. Saka inherited the No 7 shirt worn by David “Rocky” Rocastle, Liam Brady and Robert Pires in 2020; Smith Rowe was given Dennis Bergkamp’s iconic No 10 a year later.
Saka made his senior international debut for England in October 2020. Smith Rowe made his 13 months later. For years, Arsenal fans sang about both: Here we go, oh, Saka and Emile Smith Rowe!
Saka’s new chant was proof of his ascent and Smith Rowe’s stasis. At one time they shared the adoration of Arsenal’s fanbase; Saka is now the outright golden child.
Saka has started in 90.7 per cent of Arsenal’s Premier League matches since the start of the 2020-21 season; Smith Rowe has started in just 27.6 per cent of them. He has played just over 500 minutes of league football in the past 24 months.
Injuries have been a big factor behind Smith Rowe’s dwindling status, but so too were the signings of positional rivals Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz and Arteta’s attempts to make his side more functional and less free flowing. Smith Rowe can be a system player, but he is at his best when given a freer role to roam and glide. Arsenal 3.0 doesn’t have a player of that ilk.
Smith Rowe will turn 24 by the end of July and it is expected that after two frustrating, unfulfilling years on the fringes of the first team, he will move elsewhere to revitalise his career. Crystal Palace are keen to bring the Croydon De Bruyne back across the Thames, while Fulham have already had a bid rejected. Leaving Arsenal for good will sting Smith Rowe, who joined at the age of 10, and the fans who sang his name, but it is a necessary step to get back on track.
Other established academy stars are on the market too. This could finally be the summer that Eddie Nketiah, who scored one more league goal than Gabriel Jesus in 407 fewer minutes last season, moves on to become the main striker somewhere else. He has been linked with West Ham and Marseille.
Reiss Nelson, once regarded as Arsenal’s brightest teenage prodigy in years when he was terrorising full-backs in youth football, has featured more sporadically than Smith Rowe over the past two seasons and needs a fresh start. Crystal Palace and West Ham are among the clubs monitoring his situation.
Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Nelson have accumulated 372 appearances and 64 goals combined for Arsenal. They have been at the club for a combined 38 years, just over half of their lifetimes.
They are role models for Arsenal’s youth of today, the one per centers who made it all the way through to the first team. But they are also cautionary tales for what could come tomorrow: getting to the top is virtually impossible; staying there is even harder.
They, along with Saka, probably benefited from Arteta’s rip-it-out-and-start-again approach. Arteta’s ruthless cull of big egos on big wages created gaps in the squad for driven young players to take and, to their credit, Saka and co did just that.
The jump from academy to first-team is a gargantuan one and precious few players make it to the other side of the mountain range. It is an even trickier task for Arsenal’s current crop of young talent. Arsenal’s banter era is over. They are now the Premier League’s second-best team, not its eighth-best one.
“When Bukayo and Emile and Gabi [Martinelli] broke into the team it was kind of when Arsenal were struggling,” Danish striker Mika Biereth told i in March.
“They were in the Europa League and not doing too well in the Premier League. It was still very difficult to break through but easier than it is now.”
Earlier this month the 21-year-old completed a permanent move to Austrian champions Sturm Graz for around £4m after making zero first-team appearances for the Gunners.
Others who were backed to make the grade have left too. Amario Cozier-Duberry, a livewire winger touted as “the next Bukayo Saka” has joined Brighton on a free transfer. Reuell Walters, a versatile defender who was the only academy player taken on Arsenal’s pre-season tour of the USA in 2022, has joined Luton Town on a free. Charlie Patino, heralded as Arsenal’s most technically gifted homegrown central midfielder since Jack Wilshere, is tipped to leave.
There are different ways of viewing this trend. One is that Arsenal have caught up with their Premier League rivals and are now producing saleable first-team assets through their academy.
The ballpark figure being bandied around for Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Nelson’s potential sales is £80m, which would represent pure profit in Financial Fair Play terms. Chelsea and Manchester City are benefiting from this questionable financial loophole, so why shouldn’t they?
Another is that it is proof of Arsenal’s growing aspirations. When a team is on the type of trajectory that Arsenal are, only the strongest will prevail.
When the Gunners were attempting to re-establish themselves as part of the elite, Saka was one of a few homegrown players trying to make it happen. If they are able to dethrone City next season, he will likely be the only one left. Arsenal’s Phil Foden equivalent.
Maybe Arsenal’s academy exodus is a one-off, a natural consequence of a few players each reaching the same maturation point at the same time.
Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Nelson need more consistent minutes if they are to fulfil their potential. There are huge hopes that Ethan Nwaneri, the 17-year-old playmaker who became the Premier League’s youngest-ever player when debuting at Brentford in September 2022, can become just as integral to Arsenal as Saka has become.
These are exciting times for the club. Arsenal are better equipped to win the Premier League or Champions League next season than at any other point since the Invincibles entered the record books 20 years ago. But for the time being, it is difficult to shake the feeling that their soaring ambition is leaving their top academy talent behind.
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