“You’re the future, man. I felt it from the first day. Number 10, captain in the future.” Granit Xhaka knew it. Everyone who saw Emile Smith Rowe play from the moment he joined the Arsenal academy at the age of nine knew it. Problem was, there came a point when Smith Rowe had to stop being the future and that’s how Smith Rowe ends up walking out to play against Arsenal, for someone else, on Sunday afternoon.
He’s not the only one. Fulham host Arsenal at Craven Cottage with four ex-Arsenal players in their ranks. Bernd Leno will be in goal. Smith Rowe and Alex Iwobi will be in midfield. Reiss Nelson is injured, but would not have been able to play under the terms of his loan. It is these last three, all graduates of Hale End in east London, who tell the real story: of the Arsenal that was, Arsenal as it became, the Arsenal that might yet be.
