Arsene Wenger has once more said that he wants to keep Theo Walcott as the England international heads towards the ‘golden years’ of his career, but suggested that if he does leave the club it won’t be an issue of disloyalty.
Walcott’s contract expires in the summer of 2016, and the manager has admitted in the past that the negotiation process with him and his camp has been difficult, but he’s hopeful that an agreement can be found with the player.
“He is part of us,” he said. “Of the whole squad he is the player who has played the most games for us.
“He loves the club and I think he wants to stay. Once a player accepts talking to you, that means his first wish is to stay. If then you cannot find an agreement, that has nothing to do with loyalty.
“I don’t think his desire is to leave.”
And the manager’s desire to hold on to a player that he rarely uses in the team at the moment may have a bit to do with his age.
“Being 26 to 32 is the best age as a striker and I wouldn’t like to miss that golden age,” he said.
“He can be transformed. He is naturally gifted to play in this position. I work with him in both situations, as a striker and as a wide player but the quality of the runs is so fantastic with the pace he has.
“When he was younger he was rushing his finishing but he is a good finisher now.”
Of course there are all kinds of ways you could read the comments and the situation as a whole is still quite complicated, so we’ll see where this one ends up.
Soo… He’s gone then.
Sounds to me like a car dealer telling a prospective buyer that whilst the steering is wonky leading it to go of course, with a sticky acceleration pedal causing it to overshoot turns at a million miles per hour and the fact that it costs just as much as more reliable, far safer and better supercars, despite it’s 80,000 miles on the clock and only showing glimpses of quality (especially during the 60,000-70,000 miles), that it still has a lot more life left in it and that it can certainly reach the heights of it’s potential. Before kicking the tyres… Read more »
Perhaps, you were never aware of what Walcott can do. Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5vBXGnw3v4
So by defending Theo, you pick his single most greatest moment in his career? I am very well aware of those magical 20 seconds in the Champions League back in 2007/08 (7 years ago). In those 20 seconds, he beat 4 Liverpool players to create a glorious assist for Adebayor. He beat more players in those 20 seconds than he has done this season in 324 minutes and 10 games. He didn’t do much better the year before that either, with 9 successful take ons. This year, Rosicky has beaten more players, Rosicky has 0.79 successful take ons this season… Read more »
All I am trying to prove is that Theo can be a precious weapon in our arsenal. When we played Barcelona, who did Guardiola fear ? Not RVP who was our best player but Theo because of the quality of his runs. Even Messi said Pep kept on warning them about Walcott. I do know that Theo does not have lot of technique and all that but I disagree with the idea that he is useless or somebody we need to sell. Walcott is not a mere sprinter. That’s the point I am making. One player who had similar level… Read more »
I think you’ve misunderstood my point. I have never said Theo is useless, I have said that he is an expensive option that is only going to get more expensive if we keep him on board. Are there better players out there for less money? Yes, lots. He is pushing superstar wages without enough superstar performances (not even close). In 2013, he was an incredibly precious weapon, one we had great joy in using, over the last 6 months, he has been a blunt tool that hasn’t really done much and we have sharper, more experienced weapons in the side.… Read more »
sign da ting!!!
If Theo does leave then I would suggest we replace him with Hingle McCringleberry.
Or D’Jasper Hardukinchud.
I think Arsene will start our golden striker on Monday, the way he’s been talking him up all week. Would be a real kick in the nuts if he didn’t.
Eh… Maybe, maybe not. Either case, it wouldn’t be the first time.
meh theres way to many possibilities to start predicting line ups, why drop giroud for example, maybe psychological rest but why else? could do same with cazorla and put wilshire in his positon and then walcott out right theres just so many possibilities. unless we go with 2 strikers upfront i see it being difficult to play walcott as a striker for a few years
He has too. Ramsey, Welbeck and Ox are all injured so Walcott is only viable choice on right.
Wilshere is also in contention for that right side spot, as he was against Hull.
Ramsey practiced, so he’ll probably start
I do like Walcott, I feel like there’s much more yet to come that we haven’t seen during his career yet
His problem is he doesn’t fit into the current ideology of this team. This is a team that presses when they lose the ball. Walcott doesn’t do pressing. If he can incorporate that into his game, he’ll be starting every week. Until he does, he’ll be watching from the bench
Hope he stays. Great professional. We’ll need his goals next season when we go for the treble
Theo should stay and fight it out. I would love to see him given 10 games up front. Remember vs Spurs when he ran them ragged? Remember the run vs Liverpool all those years ago. I can’t believe how people are so quick to dismiss him. Theo uptop, alexis left and chambo right is an exciting prospect. That’s 3 players that can get behind defences. When you think Ramsey and Ozil can be added to the mix behind them we have a team that is going to be a nightmare for defences next year. Lets hope santi and theo stay… Read more »
We’ve seen it before, without Giroud up top, the ball simply doesn’t stick. It goes up, players get muscled off the ball and it comes back against us. It’s all very well having lots of players who can run in behind the defence, but we need to hold the ball in the final third before we can do anything with it, which is what makes Giroud’s position in this team far more important than anyone gives him credit for.
Agreed. I always hear commentators creaming themselves over the prospect of Walcott, Sanchez, Welbeck and/or Ox starting in the front three. They scream PAAACCCEEE! not unlike Clarkson’s POOWWEERR! But whenever I see only the speedsters in the front three, we don’t look like a team. The goals aren’t team goals, they are individual goals.
Teams playing against us always like to sit deep and hit on the counter. Speed is not useful in that case.
Pace no, but dribbling causes huge chaos against defences sitting deep.
I could imagine the likes of Terry and Cahill (who have shown they can easily neutralize Giroud physicality) would find the likes of Ox, Sanchez and Jack running at them with pace and intent to dribble.
Biggest worry for defenders who usually depend on their strength.
Look, we dont Need to have a striker playing who can hold up the ball. That has never been a necessity in football.
Look at all the big and successful teams in Europe and England who often play with a striker who doesnt hold the ball up nearly as well as Giroud.
It’s great for us, and I love what Giroud brings, but that doesnt mean that every other guy who plays up top must be the same. the rest of the team just has to adapt its style for that particular game, and that’s on Wenger.
Agreed. I don’t understand why people think only a target man can be a CF. I bet they’re the type of people that wouldn’t wanted Suarez to play on the wing, because his “hold up and link up play isn’t great”. Yeah, ok. Reminds me of all the arsenal fans that were saying RvP shouldn’t come back into the team when Chamakh had his initial purple patch, with everyone spouting about how his link up play and hold up skills bought the others into play and etc etc. RVP quickly put that to bed as soon as he started. There’s… Read more »
I like Theo Walcott.
If he leaves the club and Diaby stays on a wage then fuck me for it will be an injustice.
One wants more money (again) and has the ability to say yes or no to us. One simply just wants to play after having his career fucked by a thug. I personally don’t see the injustice.
Arsenal football club is not a charity. Fine he was robbed off a wonderful career and all. we’ve allowed him time, a ridiculous amount at that to get back to “fitness” but it all seems abit farfetched now that he’s gonna fully turn it around. If he stays beyond this summer on current terms and theo then YES it will be an injustice. Put your head in for a minute mate!
Walcott has signed several contracts since joining Arsenal, each one has been an improvement over the last. In 2011/12, Arsenal offered him an increase salary of £75,000 p/w on his £60,000 p/w contract. Walcott refused and had no intention of signing the contract as he wanted £100,000 p/w. Walcott refused again and again and continued to let his contract wind down, until he had one month left on his contract in the summer of 2013 after a great season with Arsenal. He wound his contract down to strengthen his bargaining power with Arsenal as he new he was a key… Read more »
2013 after a great season with Arsenal and key player from your own comment prove your other comment comparing Theo to a wrecked car is utter BS.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer.
Depends on the mouth…
Dan Smith,not Ben Thatcher
I do stand corrected, it was Dan Smith. I realised that shortly after posting. Apparently Dan now works in a call centre…
Please tell us what Diabys ‘current terms’ are?
Based on his last contract, £2.6m per year (compared to Theo’s £4.7m plus incentives).
But then you also need to take into account that it’s largely reported that Diaby has refused to take a wage if he wasn’t fit and training with the squad since 2013.
Firstly I want Diaby to stay and become the world beater we’ve seen occasional flashes of!
If I remember correctly, although he tried to ‘not take all his salary’, that wasn’t possible without changing his contract. So instead he was supporting a number of local charities. When he signed a new contract there was a notable pay for playing time element.I can’t remember the charities and we won’t find out his contract terms as the club will not tell anyone and they don’t want the players discussing them publically either.
It’s not your money that is paying his wages.
This is the most insane argument regarding Diaby`s situation, and i hear it from a bunch of different people.
This is how it works: The club is not sacrificing another player`s wages just to pay Diaby. The club has more than enough money. If the situation was we could resign diaby but we have to let another player leave just to make that happen, then i`d see (almost) where you`re coming from.
But this personal attachment to how Arsenal is spending money is just crazy.
“Club has more than enough money” then why not add Walcott the extra quid he craves so much and let him stay? on the bench. with input, you expect output. And Walcott despite his annoying stalling is more output than Diaby.
Because he is asking for Ozil/Sanchez type money and his output simply isn’t anywhere close to that. We’ve seen the problem of overpaying players before, it left us with several players who were never good enough being difficult to sell because they were on twice as much as they were worth. If you openly have the club dictated to by one player, then others follow.
Pay him what he is worth, not what he wants.
Spot on, Swish.
in terms of morals I can not see how, Diaby is a talented guy beset by injuries, so is walcott, 1 is on double the other’s wage, alright theo has less injuries, but Diaby never tried to put arsen’e over a barrel
Theo’s situation went from not being paid enough to not being played enough. He should stay with us and work hard. I don’t think he will get more opportunities at another big club, besides maybe Liverpool, but we all know that Liverpool isn’t really a big club and if I were him, I’d be worried about my career if suddenly I was on Liverpool’s list.
Could be talking him up to boost his price tag. Doesn’t look to be getting much game time while everyone is fit. Big fan of Theo and he scores some vital goals but if he doesn’t start Monday then it doesn’t look good for his future.
As for playing the central role is he strong enough? I doubt it he’ll just get kicked about.
I’m bored of the Theo transfer saga already!
Hmm…I dunno about this Arsene. Sounds like crazy talk. With the way we play Walcott doesn’t really have the necessary attributes to play up front (in my humble and utterly irrelevant opinion).
By the way, anyone know the big deal about this Dyabala kid we keep getting linked with? Apparently, he’s the new Messi, and we’ve already been linked with one new Messi (http://news.arseblog.com/2015/04/arsenal-close-to-signing-argentine-kid-supposedly/) recently, so if we could sign two new Messi’s that would be ace! Just imagine the tekkers with that many Messis in one team.
We’ll see in August. The flow of silly season bullshit has already started, in the last 5 days, I have seen articles that confirm that we are going to be getting at least 18 new players. These papers really need to be held accountable for their stunts.
You can hold them accountable by not buying their papers, not clicking on their articles and not buying the things advertised next to their articles. That’s all it takes.
A problem has never gone away because you looked the other way. It still exists, affecting everyone else who it preys on.
Tip: never click on an article that doesn’t have the player’s name in it.
eg ‘This Arsenal star says he might move on in the summer.’ is invariably trash.
I wholeheartedly agree with your tip, and I’ll give one of my own: whenever a site uses a headline/article of that sort, I use my newsnow filter, and am never bothered again by that site. It’s annoying at the start due to the sheer number of bollocks clickbait sites out there, but it makes for a much more reliable read. Unfortunately, this very article has used this tactic: “WENGER REITERATES DESIRE TO HOLD ONTO ‘GOLDEN’ STRIKER”. -sigh- Curse you Arseblog, for making me compromise my filtering system. Please, never do so again? I really like your site, and you’re usually… Read more »
Oh, well apologies for the one headline in hundreds that isn’t to your liking.
I was personally thinking of some sort of governing system, such as each story given a true or false outcome after the transfer window has been done and dusted and if deals that were fed to the public as being ‘agreed’ and ‘confirmed’ turning out to be utter horseshit, then a governing body would swoop in and ban that paper from reporting on transfers the following window. As for player less titles, I think you are referring to that utter garbage GMS website. As for singling Arseblog, behave, I’m sure Blogs and the team could exponentially increase traffic if they… Read more »
Sounds to me like Wenger is getting ready to say goodbye to Theo. I don’t particularly mind that as long as we bring in somebody even better. Marco Reus anybody???
Theo should stay. Period!
I am also bored of the Theo “centre forward or winger” debate!
In fact, the only thing that bores me more, is thinking about the playing style of Chels….snore…zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
😉
Wenger is playing for price here. He has no intention of keeping Jenkinson who is now behind Bellerin and Debuchy in both quality and pecking order. He is likely also behind the younger Chambers who is a RB first and foremost (as was his playing position for Soton) and who is technically better than Jenkinson/has more potential. With regard Walcott, Theo is playing for time and stalling to see if there are any bids coming in for him in the summer. If not, he would have put name to contract already. Wener may yet keep him should Theo decide to… Read more »
56hrs 44mins since “Rambling Pete’s” last post…. 🙁
Top four is assured, but we need to go for 2nd !!!!
Can I be the first here to congratulate Mr Wenger on get again winning the fourth-place trophy. Yes, I know we’ll probably finish second or third, but today we’ve achieved the most important goal of any season: secured the Champions’ League money for another year. I’m sure that champagne corks are popping in the Wenger household right as we speak.
Who cares about the FA Cup? We’re in the money!
Your congratulations have been passed on, Arsene will be very pleased to hear your kind words.
So how would you describe what you do Fatgooner: Trolling? or Wanting to waste the time of Arsenal fans? or Wanting to annoy Arsenal fans?
And the motivation: A sense of superiority over Arsenal fans? or a dislike of Arsenal fans?
I’d love to understand. Please explain.
He’s just saying it as it is. Some of you positive fans will see something that’s black and say its white. So it becomes “trolling” when you think giroud’s not good enough to lead us to the epl and ucl or that one title in 9 years is nothing to be jumping about or getting knocked out at the second round of the champions league every season for the last 4-5 years is not good enough or making the same mistake every year and having a purple patch towards the end of the season and being “positive about it” is… Read more »
You will have to go onto the Online Gooner to find your ilk. Even Le Grove is not as numb as your skull
Sorry to says this, but….go away Fats…you are only after thumbs downs….I used to think you were someone with opposing views, but you clearly are not!
#dontthumbfatsdown
Arseblog should leave Walcott alone!! Always Walcott this, Walcott that! Isn’t he still an Arsenal player? This blog is trying too hard to create hatred for a player who has always being a professional throughout his Arsenal career. Has Walcott even uttered a word that he wants to leave? This blog is pushing an agenda which should be totally condemned.
Quite right, if only Arseblog would stop hiding Theo’s mail when Arsenal offer him contract terms. If Theo knew where Arseblog hid his mail, he’d be able to see the contract and agree terms right away. It’s all Arseblog’s fault that Theo hasn’t been able to sign a contract and forced it to drag on and on, for the 2nd time running…