Ray Parlour says Arsenal made 'right decision' selling midfielder in summer

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Ray Parlour says it was ‘the right decision for both parties’ that Arsenal allowed Emile Smith Rowe to complete a £27million transfer move to Fulham.

Smith Rowe rose through Arsenal’s academy and established himself as a first-team regular during the 2020/21 campaign, later taking over the iconic No.10 shirt from Mesut Ozil in north London.

But while Smith Rowe quickly became a fan favourite at the Emirates, a series of niggling injury problems badly hampered the attacking midfielder’s progress and he dropped down the pecking order under Mikel Arteta.

It meant Smith Rowe made just three Premier League starts across the entirety of last season and the England international made it clear he wished to leave his boyhood club in search of regular minutes in the summer.

Crystal Palace were credited with a strong interest but were beaten to Smith Rowe’s signature by Fulham and the 24-year-old has hit the ground running at Craven Cottage, notching three goals and two assists in his opening 13 appearances.

‘I’m really pleased for Smith Rowe because he needed that opportunity to go away. He wasn’t going to play on a regular basis,’ former Arsenal and England midfielder told HaytersTV.

‘[Martin] Odegaard was out for a while and maybe he would have got his chance again in that No.10 role but you can’t think like that when you’re a player.

‘You’ve got to think about what’s best for yourself and I think it was the right time for him to move away.

‘Fulham’s a great little club, he’s the main man there in that midfield, a lot of things go through him now and he was probably going to sit on the bench for half a season at Arsenal.

‘I think it was the right decision for both parties. You don’t like to see a player who came through the ranks… he’s a good lad and a good player… it was a good time for him to go because he needs to go and prove himself.

‘He’s 24 years old now and he needs to go out and play football on a regular basis and he’s certainly doing really well at Fulham, which I’m really pleased about.’

Parlour – who won three Premier League titles with Arsenal – believes his former club may look to strengthen in both attack and midfield when the January transfer window opens for business.

‘They’ve got to have a good look at it. People say, “striker, striker, striker”. Look, it’s good to see five different players score twice in a row now,’ he added.

‘Five different players against West Ham, five different players against Sporting which is great.

‘But you still need that goalscorer… Ian Wright, we used to have and Thierry Henry. If you put Thierry in that team now, they’d win the league all day long.

‘That’s how important a striker is for you. Whether they look at that position…

‘It was a little bit worrying Odegaard being out and how the team dipped. They had very similar players in there with [Mikel] Merino, [Declan] Rice and [Thomas] Partey… they were very, very similar sort of players so that was a little bit of a problem.

‘So whether they look at that midfield or someone like Odegaard, which is very, very difficult to find and very expensive to buy if you’re going to buy one like that, we’ll have to wait and see.’

Parlour continued: ‘They’ve had so many injuries, that’s the big problem.

‘A lot of clubs are going through a similar situation. Whether it’s too many games, whether the pitches are much firmer now, I don’t know.

‘But I didn’t see as many injuries when I played, certainly, and people can’t say that it was quicker or more physical when I played so I don’t understand all the injuries.’

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