Arsenal's fans and former players have been paying tribute after the club confirmed former chief scout Steve Rowley has died at the age of 63.
Rowley took over as chief scout in 1996, after Arsene Wenger's appointment as manager of the north London side. He remained in the role until 2017, with Wenger leaving his own post the following year.
He began as a youth scout at Arsenal, ultimately spending more than 35 years with the club in a variety of roles. Over that time, Rowley played his part in discovering a number of players who would go onto great things at Arsenal, and Mirror Football has picked out some of the best.
Tony Adams
Adams was one of the young talents who broke into the team in the 1980s, before Rowley moved into the role he occupied under Wenger. He was one of two academy stars name-checked by Arsenal in their tribute to the scout, who was still in a part-time role when the defender's talent was identified.
The centre-back was just 17 when he made his Arsenal debut, and ended up spending his entire career with the club. his 504 league games included 26 in the 1997-98 season, when the Gunners won their first Premier League title under Wenger, and he had also played a part as Arsenal won the old First Division in 1989 and 1991.
“I was a bit naïve at the time because it was my first boy,” Rowley said in 2015. “Anyway I approached him at the West Ham training ground, which you couldn’t do now of course - I wouldn’t get through the doors for a start - and I asked his dad Alex if he would be interested in bringing him over."
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Ray Parlour
The second name mentioned by Arsenal in their tribute, Parlour joined the Arsenal academy thanks to Rowley. He spent more than a decade with the club and has more Premier League appearances for the club than any other player.
As noted by The Athletic in 2020, Parlour was taken under Adams' wing after the pair were both discovered by the scout in the 80s. He eventually played 339 league games for the Gunners, with 333 of those coming from the 1992-93 season onwards.
"Saddened by the Passing of Broadcaster Nigel Pearson and my Scout at Arsenal Steve Rowley," Parlour tweeted after hearing the news. "Both Great Guys. Steve was a great influence on me wearing that Arsenal Shirt. RIP."
Cesc Fabregas
Rowley and fellow scout Francis Cagigao were involved in bringing a teenage Fabregas to Arsenal from Barcelona. He wasn't the only star of the Barca academy who the Premier League side were keen on, though, as Wenger would later reveal.
"I met Cesc’s parents and at the time we were interested in [Lionel] Messi and [Gerard] Pique as well," the Frenchman recalled. "We tried for the three but of course it didn’t work out, but we got a gem there in Cesc and he is an exceptional player. A brain for football."
Fabregas made his Arsenal debut at the age of 16. He quickly rose through the ranks and captained the club, playing 303 times for them in total before returning to Camp Nou in 2011.
Robin van Persie
Van Persie developed into a lethal goalscorer at Arsenal after joining from Feyenoord as a youngster. However, he might never have ended up at Highbury were it not for Rowley's influence.
Recalling the day Rowley discovered him, Van Persie told Premier League Productions (via Metro ) that he had been in and out of the side beforehand. "I had beer thrown at me, spit at me when I was taking a corner it was a bad day. But I kept my cool and i was mature, scored a goal, played really well but I was about to sign for PSV, I was close to PSV," he said.
"My dad and a couple of friends were there [at the game] went to get a beer close to the hotel in Amsterdam. In the same hotel, Rowley was staying and he heard about the news – this is 100 per cent true this is not a fairytale – he went to have a beer at the bar and they sat next to each other.
"They started talking because they knew each other from before. My dad said ‘Listen if you want something, If Arsenal want to buy Robin, you have to be quick because he’s about to sign for PSV in the next few days’.
"Steve got on the phone to Arsene and Steve made sure he said ‘Listen I know it’s a gamble’ but I wasn’t expensive, I was like 4m Euro back then.
"Steve told Arsene ‘Listen take the gamble, it’s on me. He’s good, he played in a difficult game and he’s ready for his chance’."
Gael Clichy
Some of Rowley's discoveries came from top academies, but others were a little more left-field. This was the case with Clichy, who began life at Cannes before impressing the scout and earning a move to north London.
"I had seen enough in the warm-up, never mind the game," Rowley said of the left-back, as reported by the Evening Standard. He looked the part... strong, quick, alert. He had the lot."
It was Clichy who stepped into the fold after Ashley Cole left for Chelsea in controversial circumstances. The Frenchman had already played a number of games in the Invincibles season by that point, and went on to play 264 games for the club before adding two more Premier League winners' medals at Manchester City.
Olivier Giroud
During the 2011-12 season, as Giroud was helping Montpelier to a sensational league title, Wenger enlisted Rowley's help. The chief scout, along with former Gunners player and then-scout Gilles Grimandi, was called on by the manager to take a closer look at the striker.
As reported by The Mail at the time, Rowley and Grimandi were asked to keep tabs on Giroud between January and the end of the season. The Frenchman would eventually end the season with 25 goals and was an Arsenal player by the time they met Montpelier in the following season's Champions League.
Giroud would end up spending six seasons with Arsenal, leaving just a few months before Wenger. He scored 105 goals over the period, and established himself as an important part of the French international squad.
Serge Gnabry
Not every single Rowley discovery thrived at Arsenal. However, in the case of Gnabry, that success has come elsewhere.
According to The Mail, Rowley was blown away by the young German during a trial for the Gunners' under-16 side back in 2010. Gnabry was still on Stuttgart's books at the time, but Arsenal did everything they could to convince him to move to the UK.
When Gnabry scored his first Premier League goal as a teenager, his quality was evident, but an underwhelming loan spell at West Brom hampered his progress. He needed to leave Arsenal to fulfil his potential, but he has done exactly that, winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2020 and playing for his country at Euro 2020.
