Spotted at six, rabonas at seven, now Arsenal’s Smith earning stripes at Swindon
For many, Arsenal’s early August trip to Wembley signifies the club’s record-14th FA Cup final win and Mikel Arteta’s first trophy as a manager. For midfielder Matt Smith, that 2-1 win over Chelsea also marked a personal milestone, with the Arsenal substitute’s winners’ medal showing the strides he has made on a 14-year journey that began at Alemite, his youth team in Harlow.
“Alemite’s what we call a local club. His dad played, I played for them, a lot of old blokes have played for them and all their kids come through the ranks. He (Smith) started at under-sevens and left us at under-nines,” Stuart Childs, Smith’s childhood coach, tells The Athletic.
“He was just a different kid. When he was under-sevens, we could only move him up to the under-eights. Playing a year up at that age is massive. We’d have seven a side and Matt would run around everyone and score.
“We used to do lots of things. I had to take him off because he was just too good and I don’t mean that in a bad way. He went around five players and hit a rabona it into the top corner. I took him off and he looked at me as to say, ‘Why did you take me off?’, and I said, ‘You can’t really do that at this level, Matt’.”
Spotted by Arsenal at six years of age, he was nine when he signed for the club and when the foundations were being laid for the young man that would make such an impression on Arteta. The last few seasons, in particular, have provided more chances to train with the first team and mingle with senior pros. And this season, he has gained real first-team experience on loan with Swindon Town.
Smith’s exploits from 2018-19 stand as his strongest statement after graduating from Hale End. Captain of the under-18s, he played every single minute that year, winning 20 of 22 league games, claiming 14 assists — many of which were for Folarin Balogun, who racked up 28 goals in 28 games in all competitions — while also making six appearances for the under-23s.
Underpinning the consistency displayed that year was the work done as a first-year scholar. Already a sound technician, the task was to be able to produce week after week. The work he did under former under-18s manager Kwame Ampadu, now Thierry Henry’s assistant manager at Montreal Impact, proved essential in improving the fitness that has since become a pillar of his current game. Under Steve Bould in the under-23s last season, he also began to set the tone from deep with technique on the ball and awareness off it.
Initially, the 2019-20 campaign was going to provide Smith with challenges. He had Robbie Burton and his digs’ housemate James Olayinka — both of whom were included in the 2019 summer tour of the USA — to compete with for a place in the under-23s, and then Smith suffered an injury setback. He had to wait until late September until his first start in Bould’s side, but his patience paid off as he impressed in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool, claiming an assist, and remained in the side until lockdown halted football in March.
This run of games is when he began operating in much deeper areas. He has started excelling in taking the ball off his centre-backs to either spread the play or fire passes through the lines, with the origin of his precision perhaps coming with the help of Childs, his former coach, who would “have a bet with him to see if he could knock a beer glass over”. On top of this, the discipline he needed to shield the back four, which was particularly prevalent against Derby County’s under-23s and a Leroy Sane-led Manchester City under-23s side, was the main area of improvement last season.
Alongside his education at Hale End and London Colney, the off-pitch commitment displayed by hiring a nutritionist and athletics coaches helped mould Smith, who was now ready to impress Arteta in the lead-up to Project Restart. A precursor to his six appearances on the bench, the application he showed in those weeks were no surprise to his old school teacher Douglas Hynd, who witnessed Smith balance his footballing aspirations with schoolwork.
“At times, the demands of playing football for Arsenal were quite time-consuming but it never seemed to faze him. When he was at school, he always knew, ‘I’m at school, I need to do my work, that’s what I’m here for’,” Hynd tells The Athletic.
“There are a lot of youngsters in those situations (playing youth-level football) but only a few that make it in the end, so he was always down to earth.
“He and his mates would come down at lunch and ask, “Sir, can we go and kick a ball around in the sports hall?” and he’d be mucking around, taking it easy. If they did something quite good, he’d say ‘that’s good’ and have a laugh but in the back of his head he’d think, ‘That’s easy, I could do that when I was five’.”
Educated in a footballing sense at Hale End alongside Olayinka, Zak Swanson, Trae Coyle, Daniel Ballard, Tyreece John-Jules and Zech Medley, he and his peers are embarking on similar yet different journeys this season. With the help of loan manager Ben Knapper, all of them are gaining valuable first-team experience away from north London. Smith found himself on loan at Swindon.
Playing every minute of their nine league games so far, the hard work done at Colney with club coaches and away from the Arsenal HQ, with his fitness team, has proven vital. Similar to Arteta’s Arsenal, Swindon demand their players press the opposition. Even while playing as one of the two pivots, Smith is key to this.
On his debut, it was an interception that led to his first goal in senior football against Rochdale. Two weeks later, his anticipation paid off again as he swept in to win the ball in midfield, advance into the final third and assist Swindon’s fourth goal against Burton Albion.
These may be the highlights of his time at Swindon so far, but the ability to offer defensive and offensive stability is what has seen him become a regular.
In his nine games, Smith averages two tackles and two interceptions per 90 minutes (both club highs) while also laying on three key passes every two games (third highest at Swindon). Although he has only made one assist so far, his ability to split the defence from deep, as he has done for Balogun so often, is proving beneficial.
Developing these aspects of his game with Bould at Meadow Park and transferring them to men’s football was essential.
Compared with Premier League 2, where games are much more technical, League One presents different challenges. Especially at the base of midfield, a player has to be ready to drop in and recover second balls in front of the back line more often, while also meeting the demands from the manager to press further up the pitch. In a league where midfielders can sink, Smith has proven he can swim, despite 20th-placed Swindon still looking to find their rhythm.
With these demands mirrored for Arsenal midfielders, gaining experience away from the club could prove crucial in the 20-year-old’s development. There are still areas of his game that require improvement — scoring more goals, for instance — but with loan manager Knapper watching on and reports from Swindon being sent to the club, nailing the fundamentals will help build trust for when a chance may present itself in north London.
From Hale End to London Colney and the Emirates, developing youngsters as people as well as players takes similar priority. Academy manager Per Mertesacker has been keen to stress the importance of young players’ off-the-pitch growth alongside what happens on the pitch since taking charge in 2018.
“We have got a responsibility to equip these young men in the best possible way for their futures,” he told Arsenal’s YouTube channel in 2019. “That is wider, in a broader area than just football. Not only football, but education plays a big part in my vision to prepare strong individuals for the future and their lives. It’s a wider picture than just focusing on football.”
With Mertesacker very clear on his all-encompassing vision, Smith’s approach to being a professional footballer for Arsenal runs along similar lines. His use of a nutritionist and athletics coaches will help on the pitch, but the upbringing he had back in Harlow and through school is what set him on his current path.
“He’s a nice kid, he’s really polite. His parents kept him grounded. He wasn’t a big-headed player. He’d never say who he played for or what he did, he’d just get on with it and he’s a lovely kid to have around. You wouldn’t even know he played for Arsenal,” Childs says.
Although being surrounded by hundreds of pupils at school where the word was bound to get out, this understated character trait remained intact at Burnt Mill.
“He’s such a nice young man and he’s always been that way,” his former teacher Hynd adds. “He’s always been very polite, although teenagers are a bit cheeky now and again. Genuinely a really nice lad, always positive, always really polite and respectful.
“The school is so keen — not just with Matty — on learning what former pupils are doing and celebrating their success. Everyone’s proud of him.”
Involved with Arsenal for almost three-quarters of his life, stepping into the unknown this season with a loan was necessary.
Smith has made a strong impression in the red of Swindon. Maintaining that, as he has done with his off-pitch character, will be key to ensuring not just that he continues to develop in the south west but that in years to come, he becomes synonymous with the red and white of Arsenal as well.
