Heavy is the Head That Wears the Crown – Or is it?

Arteta has made a huge statement by offering the Number 10 jersey to Emile-Smith Rowe. It’s pleasantly surprising, to offer such a young player such a heavy shirt, but not too surprising either. Arteta has previously shown his faith in Bukayo Saka and offered him the Number 7. All accounts agree that it was the right decision, including this one. I’m confident a similar story will be written for ESR. 

There’s no need to go too far back to understand how important the 10 jersey is, nor the Number 7. Lionel Messi’s and Cristiano Ronaldo’s fan-and-press-created rivalry has many undercurrents. Real Madrid v. Barcelona. Natural born talent v. Non-stop hard work. No. 10 v. No. 7. Whichever number you prefer, no one can deny that both numbers are incredibly sought after and important for players. Mesut Özil expressed his desire to wear the Number 10 for years, until Jack Wilshere had to make way. 

But there is a need to go far back in history to find a Number 10 that lived up to the legacy at Arsenal. Its previous owners have been Özil, Wilshere, van Persie, Gallas, Bergkamp and Paul Merson. With apologies to Paul, he wore it before my time, and I can only write about him on the basis of second-hand reports. All of the players who wore the 10 after him are legends in their own right. (Though perhaps not strictly Arsenal legends always). Yet some never really got going, while others wound down their Arsenal careers shortly after wearing 10. To locate an Arsenal legend that wore the ten for a sustained period AND shone in it, we have to go back a decade and a half. 

The Years of Unfulfilled Potential and Heartbreak

Mesut wore Number 10 in the 18-19 and 19-20 seasons, where his game time and importance for the club steadily declined. This was for reasons that were never made explicitly clear by the management, until he was unceremoniously left out of the squad altogether forcing him to get off the couch and move out. Like Smith-Rowe (20), Jack Wilshere was in his very early-twenties (then 22) when he was given the Number 10 by Arsene Wenger, and he wore it with pride for 6 long years before his contract was allowed to expire and he was made a free agent. Wilshere’s time in the jersey was, however, fraught with injuries and a strange insistence on smoking cigarettes in party photographs. 

Jack was able to wear the shirt because it was acrimoniously and confusingly left vacant by Robin van Persie’s infuriating departure to Manchester United weeks after he wrapped up a 30-goal season for Arsenal. Honestly, the less said about that the better. RvP wore 11 for most of his time in North London, donning the 10 just for his last two seasons, having received it from William Gallas, after what can only be described as a most confusing chapter in the 10’s history.

William Gallas arrived at Arsenal from West London rivals Chelsea, wore the number 10 jersey as a centre-back, stayed for exactly as long as it said in his first contract, and then walked over to North London rivals Spurs. There is no way to frame this story in a way that makes sense. Arsenal traded Gallas for Ashley Cole, an invincible, and one of the best left-backs to ever play that position. Gallas, on the other hand, allegedly threatened to score own goals if Chelsea didn’t let him go. To be fair, he did deny those allegations. Gallas didn’t do terribly as a player in his time at Arsenal, but in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the right move.

The True Legacy was 15 Years Ago

We have to go back 15 years before a worthy predecessor is found. And what a predecessor it is. Dennis Bergkamp, the non-Flying Dutchman, an invincible, with a touch so silky and confident he could produce tap-ins from outside the box. Bergkamp wore de tien 423 times over eleven long years. 120 goals were scored with the ten on his back, many of which still show up in compilation reels and YouTube clips. Commentators going crazy over his ball control for THAT goal against Argentina in the ’98 World Cup have spawned memes and remixes.

But, Emile was not born when Bergkamp put the jersey on for the first time at Arsenal, and he was six days shy of his sixth birthday when Bergkamp removed the jersey for the last time. He will not remember what Bergkamp was able to do with the jersey, just as I do not remember Paul Merson’s time with it. Emile Smith-Rowe has only known the “wilderness” years of the 10. 

ESR Needs to Distinguish Himself, Not Match Up

In that sense, there’s less pressure on his shoulders – there is no legacy that he will feel he must live up to. Any legacy that he leaves behind will be his own. While he is often compared to Özil in the space he occupies in the pitch, and the creativity he brings to the table, he is a very different player. What he lacks in Özil’s maturity and once-in-generation genius, he makes up for in hard work and defensive availability. He does have a will-they-won’t-they relationship with injuries, and that could be a potential point of similarity with Jack Wilshere. But he will not be too concerned about the comparisons that may be drawn between him and other Tenners. His task is to distinguish himself from his predecessors, not to match up to them. 

He has hinted at a desire to be a one-club man, and he’s only 20. It’s too early to speculate, of course, but doesn’t it just fill you with excitement to imagine a 36-year old Emile Smith-Rowe playing a testimonial in July 2037, having given the Number 10 as many years of greatness as it had of not-exactly-greatness? If you remember his goal for the U23s against Sunderland, it’s not difficult to imagine.