New deal for Smith-Rowe signals new era for Arsenal

Despite heavy interest (and two bids) from Aston Villa, Arsenal have managed to keep hold of prize youngster Emile Smith-Rowe, by tying him to the club for another five years. For Arsenal, this is significant for a number of reasons.

Smith-Rowe has committed his future to Arsenal for the next five years.

Firstly, it shows that the club and manager are still capable of convincing players of the project being undertaken at The Emirates, something which should be commended, given their 8th place finish in the table.

Whilst a lot of commentators would put this down to the "size of the club", that simply isn't as prevalent in modern football as it used to be. Arsenal will have worked hard to convince Smith-Rowe that this is the best place for him to further in his development.

A sweetener to the deal is almost certainly the number 10 shirt, vacated by Mesut Ozil following his departure last January. This brings me to my second point - Arsenal have been bold by giving him the number 10 and its significance should not be underestimated.

Mesut Ozil has dominated the number 10 shirt for Arsenal over the past seven years, until now.

I usually don't read into shirt numbers too much as I think they can often be over-sentimentalised, but this is significant. Arsenal have placed their trust in Smith-Rowe as their first choice and have signalled to the rest of the world that, should a new attacking midfielder come in, there is a very talented 20 year-old who will be starting in front of them.

It did feel that once the deal for Emiliano Buendia was finalised by Aston Villa that Arsenal were not going to be signing someone ahead of Smith-Rowe, the concern was seemingly more whether they could convince him to stay.

Finally, as with the title of the piece, it signals the beginning of a new era for Arsenal, one built around the promising youngsters of its proud academy.

What is this new era?

If you'd have told me a year ago that Mikel Arteta, proud disciple of Pep Guardiola, would choose to rely on a squad with a strong spine of youngsters, I'd have called you a liar.

His first signings as Arsenal manager seemed to indicate that he was very much following in the footsteps of his former boss at Manchester City - signing big money, established first-team players and attempting to fit them into his system, improving them along the way.

With that mantra, the Arsenal board provided, with Thomas Partey and Gabriel coming in for big fees and the facilitation of Willian and Cedric Soares on free transfers.

The signing of Thomas Partey was indicative of Arteta's transfer policy of the time, one that has now shifted towards accommodating and nurturing young talent.

Quite simply, it didn't work. Whilst there were a lot of negatives, one huge positive for Arsenal fans was that Arteta (at least towards the end of the season), was willing to vary his system and formation to accommodate his younger talent.

It was those youngsters who began to carry the team when results were good and still managed to shine when results were bad. As discussed in my previous article about Arsenal (which can be read here), Arteta was stubborn about sticking with his 4-3-3 up until December, leaving no place for a number 10 like Smith-Rowe, but we began to see a shift towards 4-2-3-1 come the end of the year.

Arteta has shown he is open to adapting his tactical principles in order to allow this crop of young talent to flourish - a real positive for Arsenal fans, who are used to the stubbornness of both Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery.

We also saw the emergence of Bukayo Saka as a winger, following a brief spell at full-back for the Gunners, as well as promising signs from Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles on their respective loan spells. One only need mention the name Gabriel Martinelli to get Arsenal fans excited - and they should be.

Arteta seems keen to remove Bernd Leno's big wages from his expenditure and free up space for young Blades' stopper Aaron Ramsdale, who impressed despite Sheffield United's relegation from the Premier League.

Arteta sees Ramsdale as his future no. 1.

All of this signals that Arteta is attempting to construct a team built upon a spine of young talent to carry this Arsenal team forward for the next decade. The acquisition of Ben White being close to the line is also a big plus, but it is unclear what Arteta's plan is for the Brighton man - whether he lies in defence or midfield remains to be seen.

The key word, and I cannot stress this enough, is attempting. We saw a previous "golden generation" of young British talent spring up and fail to perform under Arsene Wenger.

Those that remember it well will recall just how much hype there was around Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsay, Callum Chambers and Kieran Gibbs. It feels like history may be repeating itself...

Arsenal's previous golden generation is not counted as a success, can Arteta change the fortunes of this new side?

Can Arteta get it right?

This is a balancing act for Arteta, one he must approach with caution. Whilst I'm sure every manager in the world would state that they would love to work with such young talent, I do not envy Arteta's position here.

Arsenal are by no means done in the transfer market yet, with strong suggestions that Tammy Abraham could be moving across London. To facilitate this, it is almost certain that Lacazette would need to be moved on - and that is a huge gamble.

Following Aubameyang's poor run of form last season, Lacazette was often called upon to provide that bit of quality that Arsenal so dearly missed - 13 goals in a team that finished 8th is not a bad record.

Alexandre Lacazette scored 13 goals in the Premier League last season.

Personally, I like the idea. Whilst it is a gamble that could cost Arsenal goals, Abraham can only get better and better with proper game time. We saw what he did with a consistent starting spot at Aston Villa (albeit in the Championship), where he scored 25 goals in 37 games.

The same goes for Ramsdale and Leno - I can't see Arsenal signing a potentially £30,000,000 goalkeeper to play second fiddle to Leno and I can't see Leno doing the opposite.

This, then, is the balancing act. Moving players in and out without disrupting the squad so much that it collapses. Luckily, there isn't much in the way of a strong dressing room morale at the moment, so Arteta is effectively starting from scratch.

Whilst not risking the dressing room as such, he does threaten to take out the few players that have redeemed this Arsenal side over the past few years. I'm sure Arsenal fans would be able to name six or seven players they'd rather sell ahead of Lacazette and Leno. But quite simply, they are on the most money and they would fetch the most money from the right buyer.

Bernd Leno seems likely to leave The Emirates this summer.

This rebuild is essential, so I appreciate that the Arsenal board is working incredibly hard to facilitate it properly. If this initiative of bringing in young, dependable talent is to be backed, they must back it fully.

We have already seen Guendouzi and Saliba depart on loans to Marseille, whilst the predictably-unpredictable David Luiz was allowed to leave on a free transfer. There will need to be a number of loans and sales before the end of the window to finance potential deals for Abraham and/or Ramsdale.

I must say, I really like the sound of this team, if they bring in a couple more of the right names. My main concern, however, as it often is with Arsenal, is that there seems to be a worrying lack of interest in addressing the serious problems they have defensively.

It's all very well and good tying down outstanding young forwards, but there is literally no point in doing so unless you give them the support they need at the back. I actually like Gabriel, I think he'd make an excellent partner for a top class centre-back, but who is his partner? Rob Holding? Is a very young Ben White ready to move from "promising Brighton youngster" to leading Arsenal's back line? I'm not so sure.

Ben White is close to finalising his £50,000,000 transfer to Arsenal.

I think Leno is good for another season, Ramsdale can wait - there will always be another goalkeeper available. Would that £30,000,000 be better directed towards a top centre-back - Kalidou Koulibaly perhaps? Napoli are desperate to keep hold of him of course, but realistically £50,000,000 is enough to make any Italian club budge at the moment, given the financial state of affairs there. I mean, if Everton are thinking about having a go at testing Napoli's resolve, surely Arsenal can?!

Bringing in a more established and experienced CB to steer this young side out of troubled waters when required would give these youngsters a chance to express themselves with the confidence that they are well protected at the back. Look at Thiago Silva's effect on Chelsea - a young team exploding with confidence, knowing that they had a real defender behind them.

Koulibaly was simply an example, there are plenty out there! Chiellini, fresh from winning the Euros, is a free agent, Varane is keen on a move to England with Manchester United lurking and Aymeric Laporte is reportedly unhappy at his lack of game time at Manchester City - to name just a few.

Arsenal should look for a battle-hardened centre-back that could have a similar effect to that of Thiago Silva on Chelsea.

I'm not saying all of these players are attainable or should be gone for by the Arsenal hierarchy. My point is, there are centre-backs out there that tick boxes - leadership, experience and quality. But Arsenal seem (as of time of writing) to have more interest in strikers and goalkeepers. Ben White is a great addition, a superbly talented young man, but he adds no real experience, leadership and no CV of playing at a high level.

My parting thoughts are these - there will be no one season fix for this team. There are deep-rooted problems at this football club and Arteta is doing his best to quietly address them whilst also working on his team. He needs time and support (and an experienced defender!).

Take note of how many times I've used the word "youngster" in this article and take heed of its meaning. Young teams take time to develop into something good. Stick by them Arsenal fans.