The true financial benefit of Emile Smith Rowe’s exit, and why Arsenal had to sell right now

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Arsenal are set to confirm the departure of popular midfielder Emile Smith Rowe, with the England International moving across London to join Fulham.

Smith Rowe will join Fulham in a deal worth an initial £27m, with another £7m in add-ons, and the total package will be similar to record sales of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Alex Iwobi.

The 24-year-old has started just three Premier League games in the last two seasons, but is a popular player having worked his way up through the academy, and he was a key player when he first broke into the team.

It is a sale which Arsenal fans accept needs to happen now despite their adoration for Smith Rowe, for a number of reasons. The player needs regular game time, and financially, Arsenal are set to benefit in more ways than one.

How Arsenal selling Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham is financially beneficial

Arsenal Insider have now spoken to Football Finance expert Adam Williams, who has explained why selling a homegrown player such as Smith Rowe, is potentially worth double in terms of profit and sustainability regulations than selling a player signed from elsewhere.

“Because of the PSR loophole in which academy player sales count as ‘pure profit’, selling Smith Rowe is more PSR-efficient than selling another player for the same fee,” Williams explained.

“If you sold, say, Oleksandr Zinchenko for £27m, the profit his sale generated in terms of PSR would be offset by his book value.

“His book value is his original fee, spread out over his contract length. He signed for £30m on a four-year deal and has two years remaining on that contract, so his book value is £15m.

“If you sold him for £27m now, his sale would therefore generate £12m in PSR profit.

“For Smith Rowe on the other hand, because Arsenal paid no original transfer fee for him, his £27m sale price would generate £27m PSR profit.”

Arsenal had to sell Smith Rowe this summer to benefit from PSR

There are changes within PSR regulations which will kick in from next season, which will see a lot of the benefits from Smith Rowe’s sale now, closed off, meaning that to maximise the financial positives of his sale, Arsenal could not wait another summer.

“Arsenal already have plenty of PSR headroom. But if they wanted to really push the boat out in the transfer market this summer, this sale would help proportionately more than another of equivalent value,” Williams added.

“Also, as we are expected to move to a different PSR system from 2025-26, it might be the final time they can exploit the academy sales loophole.”

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Smith Rowe’s departure will therefore generate significant spending power for Arsenal this summer, and if they had waited another year, his value would have likely decreased, and the benefits of PSR would not be achieved.