On April 17th, Arsenal announced the death of Steve Rowley, who had been the club’s Chief Scout until 2017.
Rowley had arrived at the Gunners in 1980, and when Arsene Wenger took over in 1996, he made him the club’s Chief Scout. Responsible for the discovery of multiple stars of the London side, he also helped in their development, on and off the pitch, and that’s something Robin van Persie has now been talking about.
The Dutch striker joined the Premier League club in 2004 from Feyenoord and he credits Rowley with convincing Wenger to sign him up, despite the player going through difficulties at the time.
Quoted by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Van Persie said: “I am eternally grateful to him and will miss him so much. Without his influence I might have had a nice career, but never as beautiful as it became.
“Steve stuck his neck out for me. At a crucial moment in my career, because let’s be honest: it was not my best period at Feyenoord. I wasn’t very comfortable with it. But he was convinced and a few months later I was playing in London. In all those years at Arsenal I’ve always played a little bit with him on my mind. I felt that I also owed it to him to succeed at the top.”
Van Persie says he’s “devastated” at losing Rowley, someone he kept in touch with even after transfers to Manchester United and Fenerbahce.
The scout became more than just a talent discoverer for the 38-year-old, and helped him in training, and also his family in their general London life: “Every Monday after training he sat down with me. Then he showed me pictures of Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires. Then he showed images of me in the second team of Arsenal. Then he would ask me questions about the choices I made and let me analyse the game of Bergkamp and Pires.
“He made me aware of my points for improvement and if you are talking about a sense of space and learning to create that space? He was a master at that. He also had a sense of humour and was friendly. His care for me and my wife was enormous, he assisted us as a family in everything and later even helped with the purchase of our dream house. All those things aren’t part of a Chief Scout’s responsibilities, but he did it.”
Robin van Persie added that he’s never known a greater scout than Steve Rowley in football, and that everyone he worked with loved him.
