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Report: Arsenal reject £30m offer for midfielder; club adamant he is not for sale

Arsenal have turned down a second offer from Aston Villa for 20-year-old midfielder Emile Smith Rowe.

, the Gunners have rejected a £30m bid for the Hale End academy graduate. Villa have already had a £25m offer waved off by Arsenal earlier in the transfer window.

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As per the report, the north London side are adamant Smith Rowe is not for sale this summer.

Smith Rowe was one of Arsenal’s top performing players last season as the youngster was key to Mikel Arteta turning the club’s fortunes around during the festive period.

Villa Smith Rowe bid shows Arsenal’s vulnerabilities

Villa having the ambition and audacity to even bid for Smith Rowe shows just how vulnerable a position Arsenal find themselves in.

Arsenal v Brighton & Hove Albion - Premier League
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Smith Rowe’s impact on Arsenal last season was huge. But Villa submitting offers for the youngster shows just how precarious the Gunners find themselves in the current structure of English football.

A similar situation would never arise with one of the other ‘big six’ teams in England where a club will bid for one of their top youth prospects.

Arsenal v Brighton & Hove Albion - Premier League
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For Arsenal, though, their reputation in England is slowly dropping, and Villa’s ambition to sign Smith Rowe proves that.

Arsenal need to get into gear and offer midfielder a new deal

The first bid should have been a warning sign for Arsenal that they need to tie Smith Rowe down to a new contract. But it appears that Arteta and Edu Gasper didn’t get the memo. And now, they have allowed Villa to submit a second offer for the playmaker.

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Although this offer was also rejected, the sirens should be blaring across north London that Smith Rowe must be handed a new contract, and it must happen soon before Villa come in with a third offer that could have the potential to sway the player into joining Dean Smith’s side.