It’s been a good day for Jack Wilshere, included in Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the European Championships; but a bad one for Theo Walcott who misses out on a major international tournament once more.
The winger/forward hasn’t been in sterling form this season but his pride will no doubt be dented to be left out when Andros Townsend and rookie Marcus Rashford have been selected.
He expressed his unhappiness but sent the squad a message of good luck too.
“I am of course disappointed not to make the squad, but I have spoken with Roy and respect his decision,” he said.
“I wish Roy and all the team the best of luck for a successful Euros.”
Meanwhile, Wilshere’s inclusion has angered many West Ham fans who feel Mark Noble, who performed consistently over the course of the season, deserved a call up more than a man who started his first game yesterday.
However, he’s excited to get going, and will certainly have fresh legs this summer.
“Absolutely buzzing! I can’t wait to meet up with the squad and start preparing for the Euros,” he said. “Thanks for all the messages.”
Here are some of those messages from the England family.
“you’re a fraud.”
“having a smoke to celebrate lad?”
“Glass ankles”
“you’re f*cking shit”
“Your lucky Woy is your dad, that’s the only reason why you have been picked.”
“Your only going to scrub the toilets lad don’t get too excited.”
“if you were any sort of a real sportsman you would politely decline as you have not played enough games this year”
“probably twisted your ankles writting this”
+ 5000 replies using the word ‘wheelchair’ like it’s funny and never been done before.
Tbf, Noble did deserve to be in the squad. Not at the expense of Jack, but Henderson for instance, possibly Milner too.
But yeah, those knobs on the internet. I’d love for us to take the high ground, but sadly, I’ve seen some of the comments by our own fans (directed at our own players) to say some of our fans are no better.
The internet is the internet.
Yeah, I’d pick Noble instead of Henderson. The thing about Wilshere is that if he’s fit you have to take him, because he offers England something none of those other midfielders do.
I also think the reaction is beyond churlish. Wilshere was England’s stand-out performer for at least 5 of the Euro qualifiers, probably MOTM in each of those. He played a major role in getting England to this tournament, and deserves to get a chance to feature in it.
Insubordinate and churlish.
Chicanerous and deplorable
Disgraceful, disgusting and despicable
To give him his due, it seems Roy has recognised Wilshere’s contribution to this Euro campaign by showing faith in him now. Tough luck if it’s put some nose’s out of joint. I think he deserves it.
No way! Milner is much better than Noble. Not sure about Henderson though.
Some of the comments from our own so-called fans are just embarrassing. Even in the pub celebrating St. Totts yesterday, there were a couple of idiots trying to tell me the seaon was a failure and a disgrace. Seriously? Fucking tools like that should just go away and “support” whoever won the last trophy.
Success and failure is relative. We failed to win the title. We succeeded in pipping Spuds to second place. Although yesterday was a brilliant and hilarious day, it doesn’t take away from the fact that we have been downright poor since the turn of the year which coincided with Walcott and Sanchez getting injured, and our clear lack of depth being exposed yet again.
Unrelated but poldi got into the celebrations. I miss him
https://mobile.twitter.com/Podolski10/status/731874344167714816?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Completely unrelated.
Who are the morons that tumb u down?
West Ham, the team who can’t even make Europa through the league path and are praying for United to win the FA Cup? Great team in the bottling business, but not the best if you know what I mean.
Yeah, because us at Arsenal are known for our great mettle and not bottling.
Ah yes because one man makes a team. Noble has been the most consistent England midfielder and that’s based on match facts. I’m an Arsenal fan but even I can see that this decision was based on nothing more than Mark doesn’t play for a big or fashionable team.
Noble deserves to be in but why are people suggesting he should be there instead of Henderson and Milner? Milner has been outstanding under klopp. Noble for Delph without a shadow of a doubt.
This is the most logical thing I have read in days.
At least West Ham will have their new winger well rested over summer… 😉
Like for real, what on earth has Delph proven to get in the squad? If anyone, he should be deselected in favor of Noble.
On the other hand picking a team is as much about picking the best as it is picking a team that harmonize well.
No doubt Noble has had a great season, but I think Wilshire is a better player.
Walcott can’t have anything to complain about. This was his worst season for Arsenal.
This blog should stop mocking Walcott. He doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.
You’re right, he makes a mockery of himself just fine.
Yeah if Walcott wanted to be in the England squad he should have performed to a higher standard – scoring goals to help us win the league would have been good – but had Welbeck not got injured he would have been in the squad over Theo!!!
Theo is currently hardly the darling of a lot of Arsenal fans, but he gets a lot of undeserved stick. Even this season, he has twice as many goals per minute on the field as Mesut Özil, and even has slightly better figures than Özil for goals or assists per minute. His stats are very close to those of Alexis, and only Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud have significantly better stats than those three. Agreed, stats don’t tell the whole story, but here they are: Mins per goal: 1. Olivier Giroud (141) 2 Danny Welbeck (152) 3 Alexis (193) 4… Read more »
In this case, the stats do tell the whole story… A story of statistics muddying the waters of sensibility like a bout of lasagne-induced explosive dysentery muddying the pristine white tiles of the White Hart Lane bathrooms.
You can keep Theo based on those stats. I’m still pretty content with Ozil.
I’m not saying I’m not content with Özil! Though I wish sometimes he’d shoot for himself rather than look to give a pass, he’s still, we’re told, created more chances that anyone in the PL for years. Of course he’s more important to our attack than Theo. They’re complementary.
But I’m saying Theo is far from being a waste of space, though this year he hasn’t managed to make the most of his talent.
Based on those stats, I’ll keep Theo, as you suggest, and it seems Le Prof agrees.
Agree that Theo cops more than he deserves, with you on that one. But I wouldn’t use those stats to prove it, there’s a ton of stuff they don’t show.
Stats actually work pretty well for Theo because the most often cited stats for an attacking player are goals. You took an extra step and talked about assists too. If you could also pull up stats for chance conversion rate, dribbles, pass completion, times dispossessed and touches for the same group of players, I think it would look far less flattering for Theo.
That dodging of Kabouls tackle… Was he trying to avoid injury to be able to go to the Euros? Ironically, if only he had bled for the team, going for the ball at all costs, he might actually have been picked by Hodgson.
Lol to some of those tweets.
Twisted his ankle writing this..??
Wilshere will boss it. I can feel it.
Why is this ^ not our away kit? =/
Honestly want Walcott to leave for City or Pool and score against us for fun. He’s been dropped in favor of lesser players at Arsenal and not a peep from him. And now picked over Rashford and Townsend? Still no angst, classy all the way from Theo.
Walcott situation is a good lesson for the other young English lads to work hard towards fulfilling their potential and not rely on single factor of skill like pace, they need to develop their overall game besides not listening to media hype.
In short just don’t be Walcott.
Nice guy.
Added a little bit to his finishing over the past few years.
But abolutelynothing in the way of creating chances for himself (which you need to be able to do as a lone striker).
I honestly think he slows down once he gets the ball and that jump out of the way of Kaboul was just cowardly.
Not saying Walcott deserves a call up, but if we are gonna be objective about this then Giroud and Ramsey don’t deserve to be in their respective national team either. Just imagine if Giroud didn’t score that hat trick yesterday, fans and he himself won’t have much confidence about his possible contribution to the team. Benzema’s ban helped in his selection while Wales just doesn’t have alot of choices if they base it on player’s form.
Giroud will make the French team whenever; he seems to perform better with them than he does for us probably because they know to cross the ball to him than to try playing a through pass to a player whose strength isn’t related to his speed. PS: He had been playing regularly prior to the Benzema ban. Ramsey is good enough for Wales! Walcott is okay if England decides to call him up and if not, no problem. Coach’s decision. Someone said Wilshere was picked over Noble because he plays for the ‘big club.’ What? Did Noble help England in… Read more »
Wish both or our W’s got picked. Both could use the game time and in Theo’s case, it could have been a good shop window for potential buyers.
As for Noble. He’s had a good season but he’s a water carrier and Ingerlund already have too many if those. Jack can add a touch of magic or class if he gets going.
While I would like Theo to move on as well, while he is still an Arsenal player, I don’t like keyboard bashing one of our own. It’s not like he’s Silvestre, Squalichi or Bendtner?
Triplet theo, ox and gibbs was left out. To avoid referee confusion.
“probably twisted your ankles writting this”
This got me on clutches! What a hack!