Arsene Wenger says he remains optimistic that Theo Walcott will put pen-to-paper on a new deal at the Emirates.
The England winger, is out of contract at the end of next season leaving the Gunners with eight months to negotiate a new financial package before he effectively becomes a free agent.
Speaking at his weekly press conference ahead of Monday’s match with Swansea, the boss played down suggestions he is under pressure to cash in this summer.
“Today I’m not in that kind of mode of thinking because I just think I want him to stay.
“When you go into negotiations with a player it is with a desire for him to stay. He looks keen to do it and I am keen to do it, so let’s see what comes out.
“The press is always focusing on what you do in case of failure. We are always in the mode where we want to be successful. In case of failure, we’ll see but in case of failure – that will only be in December next year.”
Since hitting 21 goals in 43 appearances in 2013/13 – the season during which he negotiated his last deal – Walcott has scored only 9 goals in 34 games.
In the main that’s down to the second half of last season and the first half of the current campaign being written off by his bad knee injury. That being said, since returning to full fitness he’s played a total of 31 minutes out of an available 1020 with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck fancied ahead of him on the right flank.
Obviously his bargaining hand is significantly weaker this time around compared to two years ago. Moreover, it looks as though Liverpool – who are coming to terms with yet another lengthy lay-off for Daniel Sturridge – are the only club to have been seriously linked with a move for him this summer.
Don’t mind whether he stays or goes. At this point I’m too happy with how the rest of the team is doing to care.
Keep the automatisms I say.
Arsenal has been in a very good form the second half of the season but we are not Barcelona, Real or Bayern yet. Some fans are being too arrogant now saying we don’t need Walcott blah blah blah. Same was said of Ramsey who was by far our best player last year. Ozil, Carzola and Sanchez cannot form a team by their own. In fact, the first two were not in a good form at the beginning of the season. Can we accept that Walcott hasn’t played a lot for close to a year and half and needs time ?
hmm, while i am not fond of his contract antics, or his all-round game, i think the truth is Walcott is still unique in the albeit limited skill set he offers to this team and the manager. His intelligence and quality of movement is the best in this Arsenal squad and has great composure and decent finishing to add to that. Alexis and Welbeck have pace, but Walcott has that thing where he’s always looking to score a goal and has a knack for getting them out of nowhere. Even if he wouldn’t make the first choice XI for most… Read more »
Not a huge fan of how he kept the club for ransom last time around. He’s too expensive in my opinion.
The minute a player begins to attract interest from Liverpool he must know his career is going in the wrong direction.
Haha, nothing more to add on this subject then!
So, I hope Liverpool get the 4th spot as ManUre will be a more dangerous proposition than the Pool. So ManU playing in Europa League will both help reduce their challenge on the league title also we can laugh at them like we do at the Tots!
I want Liverpool to miss out on top four. Manchester United can still survive another season without CL. The stature of that club is still very high and they will continue to attract players no matter they play in CL or not. But it is not the same for Liverpool. If they miss out this year, I guess we need not worry about them for a very long time. It will take at least a few years for them to recover and rebuild.But if they get in this time, they will be able to strengthen which I don’t want.
yes, but if manure miss out on champions league football for two seasons in a row, don’t they lose 25% of one of their sponsorship deals? i forget which one, but i think it’s a significant amount of money. could be damaging to a club already spending that money. fingers crossed!
Based on how the Pool squandered the Surez ££, there is no worry about Liverpool’s title challenge, especially under Rodgers 🙂 On the other hand, ManU have a higher standing and like you said still attract good players with or without playing in CL. However, a place in the Europa League or whatever its called now and travelling to play Young Boys FC will both be a deterrent as well as taxing. All English teams have struggled to do well in the Premier League when participating in that other European competition. So, is best that a team that we see… Read more »
The fact of the matter is, the last time this happened we were a selling club that was being laughed at. We’re now a to-be-taken-seriously club. Anybody with half a brain knows that we’re right up there with Chelsea and City now. I like the fact that we have an enviable balanced squad with world class players in Sanchez, Ozil, Cazorla, up and comers like Bellerin, first team players like coq, nacho, giroud and an under-rated defense led by the outstanding koscielny. I like that fact that we’re no longer a soft touch for the big teams; in fact we… Read more »
“against lower ranked opposition fearful of a hammering”
I think this is actually the key to our recent success. The League can be won only through consistency and teams like Stoke, Newcastle and Everton are no longer such a threat which used to cost us valuable points. We’ve gained enough respect to face almost any opposition as equals no matter home or away.
As far as Theo is concerned – well, I’ll miss him much. Still, he didn’t quite come up to the expectations we all had the past few years. His injury was also a big blow and he’s yet to fully recover both physically and mentally. I hope he can come back to an optimal form.
Nevertheless, I’m not quite sure he’s ready to sit regularly on the bench. If I were him I’d regain my fitness first and then think about other opition.
We’re about to see. Up the Arsenal!
If I was him, I’d take a leaf out of Jack’s book and find out how on earth he looked sharp in his cameo whereas Walcott is a bit ‘meh’ when coming on. Walcott has had several opportunities of making an impact when coming off the bench, I can think of at least 3 recent instances when he was played through with a one on one situation and another couple when the goal was begging to be scored and he fluffed it up everytime. I personally don’t have any confidence in him scoring and that’s what helped secured him a… Read more »
Jack was given almost as much time on the pitch in one substitute outing than Theo has in total.
Maybe if Theo was given a much longer time to do something on the pitch, he wouldn’t be scrapping around here and there with 5 mins clutching at the slimmest of chances to prove his worth.
I’m starting to think that he’s surplus to requirements. It’s no longer the case that his talents are unique. He’s a quick player, but our team is filled with quick players. He can score when he’s on form, well guess what, our whole team is scoring. Stuff that he doesn’t do well become more obvious in a team of this quality – how little he does in build up and defense, and how often he disappears in matches. It’s no longer the case that we have a team of attacking midfielders that like to pass the ball around and he’s… Read more »
And Jack took all of 1 minute before he grabbed the chance and ran past 3 players to the edge of the penalty box and winning a free kick. Theo has more of an underpinned speed, and has moments where he could have turned his performance around. Walcott looks lethargic and the game just passes him by, this is a complaint that was aimed at him before he was injured and made next to no appearances. As I said, he needs to show the same hunger and effectiveness that Jack made in a matter of seconds. There’s a reason why… Read more »
When i can see the words physically and mentally I always say them in a french accent.
I do this with the word “overall” 🙂 Definitely Wenger’s favourite
listen, errr
“Look,err”
“Kwality”
Are two of his other favourites but I think you’re right, “overall” seems to be his number 1
After the way Pool handled us bidding on Suarez, I’d say have them publically bid 25m +1 and then turn it down.
Gazidis to reply with “What are they smoking over there at Anfield?”
The ashes of their misguided optimism.
Has Shakespeare come back to life at Finsbury Park?
so poetic and beautiful. Thank you for this on a wonderful Friday.
hahahahaha that’s fucking excellent
I’ll be gutted if we lose Theo, injures have plagued his Arsenal career but when he has played over the past couple of year, his improvement from the days where he was classed as not having a footballing brain have been brilliant. My worry is this spell on the bench will be hitting his confidence, I’d like to see him get some game time before the end of the season.
It’s not that I don’t have time for theo, it’s that I don’t have time for any player that wants to dance this dance anymore. If he signs that’s great, if he doesn’t I am no longer fearful about our ability to adequately replace or even improve on his replacement. We’re not that kind of club anymore.
Not so long ago were the days of ‘Why the fuck is Wenger playing that player!?’ … now it’s all good. No more Walcott. No more Sanogo. No more … even Arteta. Hate all you want, but now it’s just unquestionably every position is worth their place in the team. Arteta as back up is good, but Walcott and Sanogo, Campbell, Podolski, all have positives and negatives, but Walcott is hardly ever going to be the player we hoped, or need imo. On paper you can see where Walcott fits in this team with Alexis, Gnabry, Welbeck and Chamberlain on… Read more »
Sign Da ting? For a Liverpoo Fan He definitely has The Arsenal DNA….The injury against the small team Next door fucked up his form but an on form Walcott can kill any team in England…
Agreed. Walcott at his best is a prospect worth fighting for. And showing a little bit the patience for. Here at Arseblog it seems appropriate to highlight what a one-dimensional player he is, but I’m telling you, with a decent run in any team he’ll score regularly and against anyone.
His touch, control, and composure under pressure were also taking huge steps forward prior to the injury. That and the assists he was delivering to Giroud were definitely taking him beyond the one-dimensional to me.
It’s very simple, last time he had the power and his performances warranted a pay rise and we could not afford to lose him having seen so many leave. This time we have the power, fuck his agent, wenger wants him to stay, probably offer the same money so take it and stay or go to Liverpool and good luck.
Tick-tock, tick-tock…
Theo’s “advisers” shafted him good when they negotiated his last contract. He could have got a 3-4 year extension and secured his future. I know it is part and parcel of the game and everyone wants the best deal, it just seemed very strange at the time that he only got a 2 year extension. Now he is in a pretty weak bargaining position.
CRAP.
Sell him.
Buy Januzaj.
Win the Champions League.
Simple.
I’ve never seen you make a logical comment on anything.
Balderdash! And I’ll be having my guano back, thank you very much madam.
He’s easily replaceable. But also can have a positive impacr during a season on the goals end. Nice guy. But couldn’t care less what the outcome of this is.
No way in hell does he deserve any increase in wages. If he is ready to sign for the current wages, well and good, if not it’s better to ship him off.
Is it just me or does wenger often talk in cryptic
That’s because he’s a Kryptonian!
I think the antipathy towards Theo is understandable especially when you compare his cameos with wilshires
Theo could be guy who gets the 15-16 extra goals that Wenger wants. It’s easier for us to keep him than to find a replacement. On that thought, sign da ting!
The Boss knows :,Wally can and will pull off a Coq like performance. He wants him to sign.
Wally… I needed 5 seconds to get it 🙂
If Liverpool end up in the Europa League they’ll have a very hard time keeping ahold of Sterling.
On the Walcott front, I think he’s likely to stay, as we will have a number of attacking players go out on loan or be sold this summer (Poldi, Sanogo, Cambell, Akpom).
Not Akpom.
Akpom for loan me thinks
The ref in that pic is definitely giving the Ox the stink-eye
His limited appearances are quite frankly very understandable right now. We all know he’s not 100% on form, and then there is the list- who do you bench or sub off for him? Ramsey? Nope. Not on his current form. Wenger is finding a place for him to play because he’s earned it. Alexis? Hah. He wouldn’t let you sit him down anyway. Ozil? Um, no. Cazorla? You’d have to be daft. As far as the Hull match goes, we’re 3-1 up 2/3 of the way into the match. Do you really throw on a primarily attacking winger, or the… Read more »
Sell him to liverpool and use the money towards another solid player like a solid Coq!
Rogers is blind Barttimeus,I pray they end up him,I will even sale Walcott for 10M
Rogers is blind Barttimeus,I pray they end up with him,I will even sale Walcott for 10M
Are you retarded?
Maybe with Rambo, Ox and Welbeck carrying knocks (or returning from) Theo will get some proper minutes against the swans.
I can’t see what’s holding up the contract.
Walcott is likely dragging it out and waiting to sniff out offers.
If Walcott leaves, we have plenty of pace to replace him in Ox, Alexis, possibly Ganbry (or Akpom), Welbeck.
Maybe not as quick but good enough.
What we need is someone with great technical skills operating out wide who can also possibly fill in as a proper quasi-striker up front.
Dybala would be fantastic. Lacazette maybe.
Some Arsenal fans are hypocrites, today they want to see the back of Walcott. Jokes!!! Wenger knows best and he will definitely keep him.
Walcott is the Marmite man you either like him or hate him, he’s only likely to get a start when were 8-0 up or in the cup games against lowly opposition. I hope he stays but he needs to realize he needs to up his game has not moved fwd enough for his years at Arsenal
I think Walcott’s Arsenal career has sadly come to an end. He could be a great player elsewhere but I justbdon’t see him playing regularly for Arsenal. I agree with Tim Stillman and others that Arsenal needs another creative wide attacking player. It’s why we were linked with Draxler and Reus, now with Dyabala and Nabil Fekir. Arsene himself stated we need another guy who can get 10-15 goals a season. Theo Walcott just does not contribute enough and upsets the balance of the team. I wouldn’t mind if we kept him but I also think we could upgrade on… Read more »
My 2 cents. 1. I like Walcott and think he is A LOT better than generally given credit for. 2. I also agree that we no longer NEED him. 3. I think the boss wants to keep him. However, it’s a NEGOTIATION. Nothing here is black and white. Last time around he had us over the barrel and used it to his maximum. He even played played a few games at CF before he signed (as he desperately wanted) then got very good money for his work (and never played there again) Now we have options. As mentioned by many… Read more »