Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confessed he initially harboured "doubts" over whether Emile Smith Rowe had a big enough personality to survive in a Premier League dressing room.
At just 22 years of age, Smith Rowe dons the iconic number 10 shirt at Arsenal and is widely regarded as one of the most promising midfielders in the country. However, a notoriously shy and reserved character, his manager has since explained why sending the Gunners academy graduate out on loan was the making of him.
Smith Rowe was first sent to German outfit RB Leipzig, where he barely featured under now Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann. It was his second spell away from the club, at Championship outfit Huddersfield, where the attacking midfielder really caught the eye.
Following a six-month stint at the John Smith's Stadium, Smith Rowe was eventually introduced to the first-team fold at the Emirates - but his rise to regular starter was not always plain sailing.
In the new Amazon 'All or Nothing' series centred around Arsenal's 2021/22 Premier League campaign, Arteta opened up on his first impressions of Smith Rowe, explaining: "Emile, very shy, he wouldn't make eye contact with you. I would say a little bit uncomfortable and insecure."
Discussing the idea to send the midfielder on loan, Arteta cited his concerns over whether Smith Rowe could hold his own off the pitch alongside some of the more senior and boisterous characters already in the Gunners dressing room.
"When we sent him on loan, I said I'm only going to ask you… I'm not going to watch your games," the Arsenal boss added. "I only want to hear what people say, about you when you are there, and how they are going to describe you, not as a player, as a person.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Will Smith Rowe play a vital role for Arsenal next season? Comment below
"Because as a player I don't have any doubts that you can play for us. But can you cope with being in that dressing room? Can you cope with the pressure outside? I don’t know, so you better go there and impose yourself, and he really did."
With that being said, the latter half of last season saw the momentum garnered by Smith Rowe slowly dwindle and it appears he has since lost his place in the starting XI to newly-appointed club captain Martin Odegaard.
Some fitness concerns still linger when it comes to Smith Rowe and the prospect of him playing every week, in fact, the England international is expected to miss out on Arsenal's opening game of the Premier League season at Crystal Palace due to a slight knock.
However, his raw talent alone is enough to justify Granit Xhaka's claim, also seen in the Amazon docu-series, that the Gunners' number 10 is in fact Arsenal's "future".
