Arsene Wenger insists that there were no discussions with other clubs this summer about the potential sale of Theo Walcott, saying that he always wanted to keep him.
The 27 year old lost his place in the team and that, coupled with a string of underwhelming performances, gave rise to speculation about his Arsenal future.
However, in this new campaign he has turned things around thus far, with the player citing personal training during the off-season as a factor, and has scored seven goals.
Asked at his press conference ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League clash with Ludogorets if he’d spoken to other clubs, the Arsenal manager said, “Look, I haven’t spoken to anybody because I was not ready to let him go. I always wanted to keep him.
“What I’ve seen of him is that he lets the passion for the game come out of his body. That’s what you want from him.
“I’ve felt that since he’s played with more freedom, maybe he lets his feelings come out a bit more and is less calculating: ‘Can I do that or can I not do that?’
“He plays with more freedom and more desire. I think he has a less restricted attitude and that shows you that he is a completely different player.”
To be fair to the manager, he did say back in August we’d see a different Walcott, and so far he’s on the money. This version is far preferable to last season’s.
Let’s hope he keeps it up.
Theo. Prove your doubters wrong. Stay fit and just keep playing as you are.
20+ goals should be the target.
He’s set the benchmark for himself. He’s on absolute fire!
I think he’ll get 20+ goals for us this season!
Think 20 + would be amazing. If he could get close to 15 that would do nicely even though his current form suggests more.
Will do.
Theo is that really you? 😮
Thomas Rosicky is that really you?
Happy of course that he has hit some sort of form, but still not convinced by him at all. He should of put that game out of sight on the weekend, and his misses did nearly cost us the match.. Hopefully he continues scoring goals and actually doing something other than just jogging round a bit for the foreseeable future, but I’m not holding my breath. Personally, if he keeps up this form all season I would still look to sell him, using his good form as an opportunity to drive up his price, because I still think there are… Read more »
he’s playing exactly the way we all feared he would if we sold him to Citeh or the Mugsmashers
But as he’s doing it in an Arsenal shirt the general air of disbelief is rather enjoyable
Long may it continue and a hat-trick on November 6th, please, Theo
Always rated him too.
Seriously though, love his return to quality after that season he had 2-3 years ago. I just hope he makes it a consistent standard.
And yes, I did lose faith in him (halfway through last season to be exact) and I’m glad he’s proving doubters like me wrong.
If someone told me how they have always believed in Walcott, I would have called him plastic. But not Wenger.
and not me too
You might say that Wenger knows…
How fickle some are. Constant clips of him dodging a tackle last season and now he’s the nuts!
I bet quite a few who frequent this page would have been glad to see the back of him in the summer and if he’d have played like this elsewhere would have slated Wenger for letting him go.
It’s really simple, he was truly dreadful for 95% of the last couple of seasons. He also visibly put less effort in than other players. This plus his drawn out contract sagas and inflated wage comparative to better performing non-English players turned most fans against him, understandably. Now he’s very obviously putting the effort in and performing he’s getting praised by the fans. That’s absolutely how it should be! Changing your opinion on a player based on what they’ve done recently as opposed to having fixed favourites doesn’t make you fickle. Same goes for when Arsene has good and bad… Read more »
Could be, but it looks like a search for negatives. Personally I have always liked Wallcot, especially after the gesture on the stretcher ! Football is such an emotive thing, I have fallen out with family about it before, but we all love Arsenal and we should just enjoy when things are good.
Do you really think one had to ‘search’ for negatives in theo’s game before this season?
i will repeat what i have said for a while. check the numbers and you will see that only gareth bale is a more productive BRITISH winger. all other BRITISH wingers are inferior to walcott in terms of goals and assists. I hope he can keep it up cause he can get better. when he scored 20 goals he was on fire and if he can get back to that level we have a very very good player.
Who cares if the player is British – wait, excuse me, BRITISH?
so people don’t think I’m trying to say he is better than neymar, Costa or Reus. He got heavily criticised for England and in general people think he is crap. How many on here wanted him at West ham
Form is temporary, class is permanent. Our fans would do well to remember that before they choose another scapegoat for when things go a bit awry. Give them confidence and they can do amazing things. Give them abuse and they will hide.
I really hope Walcott’s current form is not temporary.
Stupid saying anyway. Doesn’t even make sense. Lots of class players never return to form.
I’m putting my hand up as one of Theo’s doubters. But boy, is he proving us wrong this time around.
Seems that personal training and having a good pre-season really paying off for him. May he score a hat-trick soon!
Maybe if he doesn’t you’ll still support him !
Soooo we take it as ‘it happened because it was meant to happen’ right?
That takes some character. I think he knew all too well what fans thought of him last season. Put his head down and worked, and now looks like he’d be as comfortable in an MMA cage fight as he is on a football pitch!
Here’s to a fantastic season Theo. If you’re lucky enough to stay fit, l’m sure you’ll be our lead goal scorer. 30+ in all competitions please.
He started to be a real handful until he got injured at spurs that time he scored 2, just took a little bit of time to get back to where he left off ??
“To be fair to the manager, he did say back in August we’d see a different Walcott, and so far he’s on the money”
I think it’s pretty impressive how early he says these things and then gets it right. Last year I think before the season even started he said Özil would have a player of the year-year and he did
On 140k a week i dont think anyone would be bonkers enough to pay that kind of money based on his performances for Arsenal prior to this season. And when his contract lasts till summer 2019 i doubt he would be willing to cut his wages in half to go play for Everton or Southampton etc. So even if we signed Mahrez we would have been stuck with Walcott regardless, But maybe Chamberlain would have gone on loan under those circumstances. But so far this season Walcott have really put in the work and looks like a man possessed. May… Read more »
I imagine Wenger laid it out for him; I can’t justify playing you and nobody can justify buying you, if you don’t start playing well you are headed nowhere, get your act together.
And he did
Frankly, I don’t think a lot of other clubs would have been chasing him in the summer anyway, he was so poor last season. Maybe we would have cut our losses then and sold him if they had, and we would have missed out on the new supercharged Theo 2016-17. Long may this continue.
Theo
Theo
Walcott
Good on you son!
If he keeps up his good performances the passion will come out of my body too
If you ever thought for once we should have sold Walcott, you should bear that in mind and eat some humble pie. I did.
AND for those who like to pontificate, think they know better than a manager 20 years on the helm, they should remember they have been wrong aplenty…like Coquelin, Walcott, Ramsey etc etc. Stop bleating negatives about the Ox. Get behind the team. Learn a bit of humility.
😉
I’ve tried to resist saying this, but there are always fallow years and years where Theo performs beautifully – namely those preceeding contract negotiations. Am I right in thinking his contract negotiation is due any moment?
this is more than coincidence IMO
I’d also like to add that I am and always have been equally frustrated and delighted by Theo.
I think Walcott may have had some kind of Scott Pilgrim like revelation over the summer and pulled a flaming pair of football boots from his own chest. “Theo Walcott has Earned the Power of Self Respect”
Long live Walcott 3.0