Arsenal were bled dry by Wenger dud who earned more than Smith Rowe does

Arsenal’s resurgence over the last couple of years has been based on several different factors, but one of the most important has been squad building.

Mikel Arteta and Edu Gaspar have overseen the recruitment of some brilliant players, such as Martin Odegaard, Gabriel, and Declan Rice, but they have also sanctioned the sale of those who were not good enough.

The team Arteta took over and the one today is almost entirely different, and the wage bill has been transformed in the process, with players who actually contribute earning the big bucks, unlike just a few years ago when a player who was never really good enough took home more than Emile Smith Rowe earns today.

Emile Smith Rowe’s salary at Arsenal

Smith Rowe has endured an interesting career at Arsenal, breaking through as one of the most exciting young talents alongside Bukayo Saka a few years ago, to someone who has seriously struggled for game time over the last couple of campaigns through a mix of injury problems and the development of the surrounding team.

That said, it should not be forgotten just how good the young Englishman was at points for the North Londoners.

For example, in the 2020/21 season, the Croydon-born gem scored seven goals and provided seven assists in just 37 games, and then followed that up with 11 goals and two assists the following campaign, at which point he was described as “incredibly prolific” by talent scout Jacek Kulig.

Just before the start of that fruitful season, the 23-year-old ace signed a new deal with the club that increased his £15k-per-week wages to £40k-per-week. While that could be considered a lot of money for a player who has made just 31 appearances across the last two seasons, he has already proven that, when given a chance, he can operate at a high level.

In comparison, a player who used to earn more than Smith Rowe currently does never fulfilled his potential at the club and arguably never came close.

Calum Chambers salary at Arsenal

Yes, the player in question is former Arsenal defender Calum Chambers, who joined the Gunners for £16m from Southampton in the summer of 2014, signed by Arsene Wenger, before joining Aston Villa for around £2m in January 2022.

The Petersfield-born ace made just 122 appearances for the club across his seven-and-a-half-year stay, scoring five goals and providing nine assists. He did spend one season on loan with Middlesbrough and one on loan with Fulham.

In his first three seasons as an Arsenal player, he earned a cool £45k-per-week, but in the 2017/18 season, that went up to £50k-per-week, or around £10k-per-week more than Smith Rowe is currently earning.

Therefore, for the five and a half seasons he was an Arsenal player – taking away the two years he spent on loan – the 29-year-old cost the club around £14.6m in wages alone.

Combined with the £16m fee and the £2m they got back for him, the North Londoners paid around £28.6m for very little return from the Wenger dud.

That means that the versatile defender cost around £234k-per-appearance, £5.7m-per-goal, or £3.1m-per-assist – talk about value.

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The incredible youngster has been on fire this season.

Ultimately, it’s hard not to consider Chambers’s time at Arsenal a mistake, although it makes the wage Smith Rowe earns look justified.

The Gunners were, in the end, bled dry by the English defender who did not turn out to be value for money after being signed by Wenger from Southampton back in 2014.