On the 17th of this month, London local time, the 63-year-old former Arsenal chief scout Steve Lawley died of illness, he joined Arsenal in 1980, was promoted to chief scout by Wenger in 1996, and remained until his retirement in 2017. Veteran Arsenal fans must have heard of Lawley's name, he has brought many good players to Arsenal, and here are seven of them to highlight.
Tony Adams
Arsenal's legendary captain was discovered by Lawley, who was a part-time scout at the time, and he brought the 14-year-old Adams from the training ground at West Ham United to Arsenal, where Adams lived up to Lawley's trust and grew into a legend. Digging up Adams is also the first time that Rolly's scouting path is on the way.
Palor
Parlor also came from Arsenal's academy and was brought to the youth team by Laurie, making his debut for the first team in January 1992 and not leaving Arsenal until the summer of 2004. Although Palo is not a superstar, he is a player who is underrated by everyone.
Fabregas
It was Laurie's lobbying that Xiaofa left Barca at the age of 16 to join Arsenal, where he also reached the peak of his career. If Xiaofa had been staying at Barcelona at that time, he might not have reached the height of Arsenal.
Van Persie
In a Dutch first-hand match in April 2004, Laurie went to visit Van Persie, who was still playing for Feyenoord, and that night in the bar, Laurie and Van Persie's father met, and the two sides had an in-depth conversation, which resulted in Van Persie abandoning Eindhoven and switching to Arsenal. That night Laurie's exchange with Van Persie's father became key.
Clichy
The French left-back came to Arsenal from Cannes in the summer of 2003 when Raule identified him as Ashlicor's successor, and when Ashlic left in the summer of 2006, Clichy became the main left-back, and moved to Manchester City in the summer of 2011, where he won more titles.
Olivier Giroud
In the 2011-2012 season, Giroud played an excellent season in Montpellier, helping the team win the first Ligue 1 title in the history of the team, and he also won the Ligue 1 Golden Boot, and Lawley also inspected him throughout the whole process. Coming to Arsenal, Giroud scored 90 goals in 255 Premier League appearances.
Gnabry
In the summer of 2011, Gnabry came to Arsenal from Stuttgart and Lawley considered him a genius, unfortunately he did not find a place at Arsenal, making only 18 first-team appearances. Now he's playing well at Bayern.