Fulham reap benefits as Smith Rowe rediscovers his magic

Emile Smith Rowe has been a man on a mission at Fulham this season as he looks to make up for lost time when his career stalled at Arsenal, and the midfield playmaker has lit up the pitch in the white kit, making the Craven Cottage fans dream.

Once heralded as the heir worthy of wearing the iconic number 10 kit at Arsenal, Smith Rowe struck up a lethal partnership with Bukayo Saka as Mikel Arteta's revolution began to take shape before injuries derailed the midfielder's career.

Smith Rowe scored 11 goals in the 2021-22 season but groin surgery kept him out for most of the following season. Martin Odegaard's rise to captain and first name on the team sheet was the final nail in the coffin of Smith Rowe's career at Arsenal.

With no hope of breaking into Arsenal's starting line-up, Smith Rowe jumped at the opportunity to move across London when Fulham signed him for an initial fee of 27 million pounds ($34.89 million), which could rise to 34 million with add-ons.

Fulham had not finished above 10th since their return to the top flight in 2022 and manager Marco Silva was adamant that the club should pay the fee to recruit the 24-year-old as he went about rebuilding the squad.

"Sometimes the most expensive ones are the players that don't play (well) or they don't perform. There was a big effort from us as a club (to sign him), we knew him so well and we had a small chance to fight to have him here," Silva said.

"I told our board that we have to go with everything that we can because we needed a player like him - clear and more creative in that pocket area, a player that arrives in the box."

Smith Rowe needed little time to establish himself at Fulham and adapted easily with his former Arsenal team mates such as Bernd Leno, Alex