The odds on Theo Walcott making a move to Southampton have been slashed this evening with Sky Bet making the Saints 11/10 favourites to sign the 28-year-old when the transfer window opens in January.
The speculation is being driven by the fact the Saints are about to find themselves £75 million richer thanks to the sale of Virgil van Dyck to Liverpool. It was confirmed this evening that the Dutch defender will move to Anfield next week in a record-breaking deal for a defender.
Walcott has been linked with West Ham United and Watford in recent weeks but it’s the intriguing possibility of a return to Saint Mary’s that has most excited the bookmakers.
The England international swapped Southampton for Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2006 and has since scored over 100 goals in just short of 400 appearances. His first team opportunities have been limited this term with Arsene Wenger preferring to use the attacker in the Carabao Cup and Europa League.
Walcott, who is under contract until 2019, has remained silent on the subject of his future even though he’s also fallen out of favour at international level in recent years. For his part, Arsene Wenger insists his protégé does have a future at the Emirates.
A return to Southampton is certainly one for the romantics and, on many levels, it makes sense. Mauricio Pellegrino’s are in desperate need of some pace, they’ve got the money to cope with signing Walcott and to pay his big wages. Moreover, they can probably offer him far more minutes than Arsenal where his career has stagnated recently.
It does feel like Theo’s time as a Gunner will be up soon. We’ll keep an eye on this one…
We need to get what we can for him now before his value drops further. He obviously isn’t in Wenger’s plans unless Wenger does decide to sell Sanchez now and Giroud looks to be out longer than expected. Each match Walcott plays to me drops his value as he has not shown well in my opinion.
Theo is the definition of just cruising.
We’ll probably spend all January trying to get Southampton to up their bid by 50 pence.
There is a god! Merry Christmas all!!!
He scored 19 goals last season being on form only half the season. He is an incredible talent very inder utilised. Should have been starting ahead of Alexis because of Alexis ball losing streak losing us points and also he is always a threat to any defence. If you are not going to play him, sell him and move on already FFS
Start Theo Walcott ahead of Sanchez? Really? I know Sanchez can be frustrating but benching him in favour of Theo!!!! Really?
He’s effectively a wide goalhanger, who can’t function against teams that deploy a deep defensive block (which amounts to 80% of our opponents).
Better suited to a more direct counter attacking team i think.
But also is so completely sh it he can’t actually play onside.
Theres more to football than goals. The reason why Theo scored that many is because he lacks the ability to produce goals for others. So when he doesnt score, he does nothing else. Its like playing with 10 men Imho he is a horrible bad footballer who shouldnt have been allowed to make it at a club like Arsenal. I mean honestly, you can find 10 year olds at our youth academy that have a better technique than him. How you can call him an incredible talent really is beyond me. Because what? He is fast? Because he has been… Read more »
A horrible footballer, who at the age of 18 was terrorising Barcelona ‘s defence. Please, you wouldn’t know anything about football even if it hits you smack in the face.
We’ll you don’t watch football if you think the walnut is a top player.
It’s heartening to read such common sense. Walnut is indicative of AWs managerial inertia over the past few years. Walnut scores or does absolutely fark all – there’s no in between. But we keep him because he’s got a fan chant and AW hasn’t got the guts to get rid. No top manager would have indulged the walnut for so long.
Rubbish. “Lacks the ability to produce goals for others”? Walcott has had 4 assists so far this season — only Ramsey (6), Özil and Alexis (5 each) have done better, and they’ve all played nearly twice as many minutes as Theo. Look at the stats. Walcott has a goal or assist every 98 minutes. Compare that with Alexis (a goal or assist every 121 mins), Lacazette (135 mins), Özil (142 mins), Ramsey (143 mins). OK, in Walcott’s case we’re talking about the League Cup and Europa League, but you can only perform against the opposition you’re facing. Compare Giroud, who’s… Read more »
Are you including the 6 nil dead rubber drubbing of the mighty Bate in which most of walnut’s figures come from? The imperious Donc Rovers? Lacazette Ramsey etc are actually playing against some decent teams. Lies, damn lies and statistics…..
I know Sanchez loses the ball a lot, but still better than someone who barely even gets a touch of the ball (sometimes looks like he’s almost avoiding it).
Spot on.
This is why our fans are the laughing stock of the football world. I’d bench Walcott for Joel Campbell, let alone Alexis Fucking Sanchez – who scored 30 and assisted 15 last season.
He loses the ball a lot because he’s the only person not playing pointless sideways passes. Stick to your stats and keep watching your football highlights, it’s clear you don’t watch every arsenal game.
Walcott should have been sold 5 years ago.
“frustrating Aleixs’ was the one who nicked in and scored the goal to launch the comeback against Liverpuddle. His ambit is to attempt things and take on players. Its risky and he loses possession still too often but if we don’t have him gambling and making things happen, we’d be an even more predictable side. Which was why last summer I felt, even with Alexis kept on, we should have balanced the unpredictability load factor out with Mahrez on the other flank. Wally is far too predictable. He’s got better but still lacks craft considering. When you think of some… Read more »
Not sure if you’ve watched him play at any point over the past several years or so but the idea of the walnut as some kind of pass master is a bit demented. And he’s the most one dimensional player in history. Please. Sell. Him.
I’m happy if we sell him so long as we use the money to strengthen the team.
Agreed. Though I think we’re going to need that money plus all the money in the world to have a team just capable of getting into the top four if we lose Sanchez and Ozil in January
Hahahahahahahaha.. ….. . Good joke!.
If we do lose Sanchez, Oil and possibly Theo in January. – who do people think we should buy. Personally I do like Draxler, I think if he plays for a team that rates him he’ll blossom. And I’d still buy Mahrez. Then as soon as Rambo was back I’d drop Zhaka and play Wilshere. Zhaka is nowhere near good enough to play midfield for us. I’m not sure Wilshere/Rambo is the answer but I think it would work better than what we’re doing at the moment. Alternatively we could go buy a commanding midfielder, but as we haven’t done… Read more »
I think we’ll lose walcott and sanchez. I’d replace them with N’Zonzi and one of Fekir/Lemar/Draxler, in order of preference, although the first two do seem fanciful. I’d love a top quality CB but really who’s available? Koulibally is the dream but why would he leave Napoli in Jan, when they have a great shot at the Serie A title. I’d take david luiz. Not that I love him but he’s the best available and with Kos’s bad patch, he’s probably better than any CB we have. Fuck I hate writing that but I think it’s true. Anyways all this… Read more »
Nzonzi please. Rubbish.
We need better.
You can comment about Xhaka if you can spell his name. If not, you clearly don’t know him or watch him or Arsenal enough. Once I can excuse as a typo but not twice!
Apologies Tom, happy to take the beating for my woeful spelling
Will you guys like a side of messi and neymar to go with all your wishful thinking?
Are you seriously trying to kill eddie-two goals?
No chance he goes now Giroud’s injured. He actually got an appearance last match.
And on balance did less than ferk all.
Still have mixed feelings about this. It’s being repeated over and over, but you can’t take away from him that he indeed did score 19 goals last season. He can be extremely prolific at times – and he’s not even a striker. If there was a winger on the market with such goalscoring record as Theo has, we would all desperately want the club to chase after him. Theo is absolutely lost in 3-4-2-1, but since we abandoned it lately and reverted back to 4-2-3-1, Theo is suddenly back in contention for me for that RW spot. With Welbeck not… Read more »
If he is off then not risking him vs Liverpool seems less a conspiracy
I have this theory, which probably isn’t true, but has some merit. I think Theo right now even in a 4-2-3-1 wouldn’t be as prolific as before, because I think his goalscoring form is connected to Sanchez form. Last season Sanchez was on fire, either as a LW or False 9, and his drift to the left and danger caused teams we played against to pay extra attention and load to the left side, giving Theo the room and time he craves to run into the box and score. This season with Sanchez in such bad form and opposing teams… Read more »
Well said!
To the stats peddlers, those 19 goals did not occur in a vacuum! Also shouldn’t be the cross you die on for a player who has been at the club for a decade.
What I think your analysis skips over is that most attacking players do better with more time and space, not just Walcott. And that comes from quick, accurate passing and intelligent movement in the final third. It’s no mystery that our attack, from Sanchez and Lacazette to Welbeck and Iwobi, has suffered from a lack of those things this season. As for Sanchez, I’d argue that he played with more variety last season and his movement was much better. He especially got in the box a lot more, where he can do far more damage than his average position atm.… Read more »
Whilst I fully agree that he can be one of the most frustrating players to watch, especially on the days he just wanders around the pitch looking like an u13s player in a senior game, his Arsenal career numbers are surprisingly good. 113 scored and 77 assists in 417 starts (per transfermarkt). Not amazing but certainly not terrible, particularly for a winger (even though it includes his brief time as a CF). Across the years he’s also been the victim of some really poor officials where they’ve allowed the opposition to kick him senseless (to both slow him down and… Read more »
Great!! I’ll just grab my coat and keys.
Im delivering this prezzie myself.
Its a shame that now even arseblognews isnt safe from the clutches of skybet…
Bearing in mind the amount of shade sky throw at arsenal and the negative narrative they constantly pursue regarding the gooners, its unfortunate that they are allowed on this website
This coupled with recent murmurs of 40m draxler wouldn’t be so bad if true.
I guess this is just because of saints 75m cash boost.
Walcott scores goals. He also makes goals.During Robin Van Persie’s last season at Arsenal Walcott had 20 assists. Wellbeck his a headless chicken and cannot finish. We are now critisiing Walcott for being a goal scorer. Get a grip.
Arsenal is a club in limbo waiting for Wenger to achieve the longest serving manger title. Wenger has been building for the title for the last 12 years a dismal failure all round.
Sell him.
Buy Mahrez.
This is regardless of Ozil or Alexis.
If we sell one of these other two higher end assets, we should be adding a Draxler.
But Mahrez IMO will add subtlety to our attack from right side and will pair well with Bellerin/balance Alexis on other flank.
Wenger should frankly have gone for him last summer when Leicester were talking tough and there were no buyers.
He’s back in good form and it will be even more tricky to land him now.
Gonna be funny if Arsene keeps him and he gets his representatives to attempt to get a better deal.
He is so shit, he is going to end up playing for a team fighting relegation.
Meanwhile in other Soton news, they’ve concluded a deal to send Van Dyjk over to Liverpuddle.
So Klopp at least is addressing his weakness where we failed to take full advantage of last game.
I doubt Wenger will be buying to strengthen at the back till summer. Internal improvement looks like the course of action.
The delusion of our fans is 2nd only to our manager!! Why are we thinking of selling Theo? Does that strengthen us? FFS
We are 6th and thinking of selling instead of buying FML
We’ve had opportunities to get rid of the walnut over the years but he’s benefited from the ‘it’s the wrong time to sell him’ defence e.g.. when we sold v*n p*rsie.
Our 25 registered players quota is full, so we have to sell if we’re going to buy anyone (or just pay a player to not play).
Walcott has done some really fine work at Arsenal, and he seems like a nice guy, but he hasn’t added much to the first team for a while. He can still terrorize a Europa League opponent so he’s an asset as a squad player, but his contract demands were always outsize for his contribution and he always made it difficult to re-sign him. Lately he’s been a team leader in offsides per minute played but not much else. He isn’t going to get any better, folks. If anyone will buy him, I’d sell, and good luck to him. Promote another… Read more »
Eh, we’ve heard this all before. With Theo I’ll believe it when I see him holding the shirt with a heavily mustered up smile in a hasty twitter photo.
The odds of him going to either Leicester or Everton seem like good value.
An article based entirely on the odds on skybet? I think we’re going to have to bring back the poo-ometer and extend it far beyond the usual maximum score of ten.
Will always have that 2-0 hand gesture whilst being stretchered off vs Spuds. Great moment!!!
Walcott’s skills and playing style have never really fit in at Arsenal. He would do really well at a club like Leicester, where speed and counter attack is prioritised over possession and close control. Hard to move someone on an elite club salary to a club of lower stature though, especially as that would mean less money for Walcott’s prick of an agent. I don’t really have anything against him as person, even though his PR-grooming has made him very impersonal, but I would be happy to see Walcott the player leave Arsenal.
Walcott is a hugely divisive figure (even though he seems like a pretty decent guy in person) but what you can’t take away from him is that he was our second highest goalscorer last season and probably in the form of his life. Meanwhile Welbeck and Iwobi can’t buy a goal between themselves and Sanchez has been very poor by his own standards. Whatever you might think of him as a footballer, Theo is a damn good option to have right now and imo Wenger has made a mistake in freezing him out.
What earth are we going to do with this team that is comparable to adding Virgil Van Dijk and Naby Keita?
Does he need a lift?