Theo Walcott’s future with Arsenal is very much in the air, not least because of his lack of playing time this season.
Despite featuring in the Europa League and Carabao Cup, the man who scored 19 goals last season has yet to start a game in the Premier League, and has played just over 45 minutes football in the league during the current campaign.
It seems clear that he’s been very much marginalised by Arsene Wenger, and even with Olivier Giroud out injured, he remained on the bench as the Gunners looked for goals against West Brom on Sunday.
The 29 year old, who has 18 months left on his current contract, has been linked strongly with a move back to his former club Southampton who are cash rich from the sale of Virgin van Dyke to Liverpool.
Sam Allardyce is also keen to boost his attacking options at Everton, but it seems more likely that a return to the south coast is on the cards.
Earlier today, Arsene Wenger spoke about his plans for January, suggesting he is on the lookout for new players, but that the contractual situations hanging over Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere would play a part in any potential business.
All the best and good luck to him at his old club.
Cannot see TW14 being released until AW knows what striking combinations he has left after January.
@Runcorn Gooner The only way I can see Walcott staying will be down to whether or not the player digs his heals in. But considering its a World Cup year and he is what? 28/29 now. Surely he has to be looking to actually try and get a game in Russia. Or maybe not. It wouldn’t surprise me if Walcott wants to stay at big comfy Arsenal collecting his £140K a week to just use the gym at London Colney. The guy has played a little over 45 minutes combined this season and its January now. So keeping him around… Read more »
Wasn’t lucky to have a coach who only bet on passes. Our game is so slow now that the quality of Theo’s run became useless
Walcott had himself to blame for not putting defensive efforts. Wenger is to be blamed for everything else.
That is nonsense. Theo Walcott literally won the lottery. He was never ever good enough to become a professional footballer at the top level of the game, especially playing at a club as big as Arsenal. He only started playing football at like 14 or something, and it honestly shows. His first touch is genuinely; his decision making; his off the ball intelligence; his actual physicality and work rate are all genuinely awful. The only thing he has ever had going for him is the fact he is really fast and his marketability. The latter being the only reason why… Read more »
How did he score 19 goals last year and reached 100 goals at Arsenal with all the injuries he had.? In terms of goals per minute played for wingers, he must be in top five of league. How do you compare him to Welbeck and Iwobi in terms of end product ?
Well said!…and I agree 100% personally?..I don’t agree with the “Theo bashing” that some seem to find quite easy to do. Walcott has a special skill set, speed and efficiency in front of goal. Cazorla, the ambidextrous magician he is not. simple! Play to his strengths, and he will get you bags of goals. when you don’t, he ‘looks’ completely useless on the pitch. The reality though is he is still doing what he always does….run behind the defense all day, the only problem is, nobody is spotting the runs to make use of it, and by the way, the… Read more »
He is not a fucking winger!! He is a crap cf!
Because he’s been at Arsenal for over a decade mate. He averages 5 goals a season in the Premier League. Its taken him 13 seasons to score 65 goals. Hazard as an example has scored the same amount of goals in 5 seasons. As another example Alexis has scored 60 goals in a little over 3 seasons. Another one; Raheem Sterling has scored 45 goals in 4 Premier League seasons. Even Aaron Ramsey has managed to score 32 goals in just under 6 seasons. And he’s a central midfielder, and lets not forget his injury record is worse than Walcotts.… Read more »
Blogs let me up vote this 1 hundred times. I hate Walcott!!!!!!!
Maybe this is the exit Wenger was talking about when he said we respond well to big players leaving! One can only hope.
Hope with the new off the field team in place we’ll be able to manage the transfer market better (both buying and selling) and it make even make Wenger see it as an opportunity rather than a curse.
Good for all parties concerned if the move happens.
But we should do this business in the summer due to the current campaign’s Europa League exploits where we will need all the depth we can afford to have!
can’t believe i’m saying this but I’d rather use walcott on the RW than iwobi. at least he has some end product. iwobi contributes nothing!
I second that. Iwobi is overrated. Honestly he couldn’t score in a brothel. At least Walcott is half decent putting the ball in the back of the net.
Iwobi is not overrated.
he is only 22yrs. Plenty of upside potential.
He has great close control and he works for the team.
Walcott has reached the end of his abilities. His work is based on pace which will only wane as he gets older.
That said, he may have better impact then Iwobi at the moment depending on how we use him.
But Iwobi is the future.
😉
He’s a player without a position. He can’t score or create enough in the AM or Winger position. He doesn’t work hard enough to be a DM. Plus he doesn’t track back.
He just isn’t good enough at 22 to be a regular player for Arsenal.
Agreed…did nobody watch iwobi score against Argentina. Walcott never in a million
Umm yeh. If Iwobi is the future of Arsenal, with all due respect to Iwobi we won’t be winning anything decent anytime soon.
I cant either, iwobi is a far better player
“Virgin van Dyke” : If he gets himself down a scouse wetherspoons on a friday night, he wont be a virgin for long.
Obviously one of the few players who has yet to get himself fucked at Stoke.
I’m a big advocate of getting rid of players like Walcott but considering how hard we find scoring goals at the moment this has real potential of biting us in the arse if he isn’t replaced. We’re an injury or “injury” to Sanchez away from being completely impotent up front.
We have Perez to recall if necessary.
“We” as in Chelsea? Cause we all know what team you support. It isn’t Arsenal.
We all know you support Spurs
Why are you an advocate for selling players like walcott? This isn’t explained. Is it his wages? His abilities? His lack of form? Your run on sentence offers nothing to explain why you’re an “advocate” for selling walcott, so i will assume it’s because you have a bias. Theo has over stayed his welcome. And he looks well off the pace required to compete in the premier this year. He costs us USA lot in wages and yet doesn’t perform when we need him to, even when shown the opportunity of captaincy by Wenger when he starts league cup or… Read more »
You’re free to assume what you like and I don’t feel the need to explain myself but you yourself have given a whole host of reason why I advocate selling Walcott
Do you want him at Chelsea so you can see him every week?
Do you want him at Spurs for the reopening of the lane?
I.d love to see him earning massive wages and wasting a squad place at chelsea or spuds
Or incompetent
Please just move him. I wish Arsene had a little more ruthlessness when it comes to underperforming players
Walcs ….. it’s time to leave the comfort zone.
On a non related issue…… is it just me, or is Mourinho a nasty piece of work?
Ramsey next?
Ramsey will be retained at a high cost to the club. We meet central midfield players, especially into next season, and Aaron will be in a strong position to bargain with the club.
Get rid of our best midfielder. Great idea.
Good midfielder who is sometimes great and most of the time undisciplined. More consistency from him and I wouldn’t wish him gone.
Tbh I think under a more tactical manager, Ramsey would either be more disciplined or just play as an AM.
Could you honestly see Ramsey perform and develop into the player he is now under Pep? No way would he allow it. Even De Bruyne said Pep coached out unnecessary fancy backheels out of him.
Considering how he’s performed for Wales the times I’ve seen them you might be right about that.
He didn’t coach them out of Sanchez
I’ve been saying for years that he should be included in Front 3 or Front 4 conversation and ruled out as a box-to-box. We get so much more solidity with someone like Jack. Ramsey just needs to fly with complete freedom and centrally.
I truly believe that he will be the first to fill either Alexis’ or Mesuts boots.
Good move for all parties if Southampton can afford him. There are some comments about squad depth, but I would honestly rather see RN or Eddie getting more Europa playing time.. Anyway, best of luck to him, he’s a solid professional who just doesn’t seem to fit at Arsenal anymore.
It’s weird the way wenger treats some players. Plays some to death and others will only play when they finialy break down. Others don’t get a look in no matter how bad were playing. Other’s are bought but hardly get a look in. others will never be good enough but seem to be kept around ‘for just in case’ while some youngster’s get a shot but not in their best positions ect. It’s all a bit underwhelming.
You’ve listed a number of situations there, where does Walcott fit into them? Played to death and breaking down (think back to the playing time up to some of his injuries over the years), hardly gets a look in/kept just in case (you could argue this has been the last 12 months for Theo) or a youngster ‘not in their best position’ (think back to that lost 17 year old lad playing right side of a midfield 4)?
Stick round the club long enough I guess one can try out all the roles
This is it. Walcott scored 19 goals last season. It’s hard to criticise him this year when he hasn’t had many minutes in the prem. He was dropped imo for saying in that post game interview that some players werent up for the fight. Wenger baffles me. Is Theo any worse than Welbeck?
Much worse
Underwhelming is the understatement of the century
Qmantis certainly describes how we are frustrated by the great man.
“Wenger knows”, is replaced in recent years by “Wenger used to know”
I don’t have strong feelings about Theo either way. I just know he’s represented Arsenal well and any footballer at that stage of their career should be wanting a more consistent run of playing time. I hope he finds it.
If we don’t add and just ship out Walcott…it won’t make us stronger.
We need to add a Mahrez on the right flank to balance out Alexis (or whoever) And help carry the offensive load with Bellerin.
We are unbalanced at the moment and crucially lacking in technicality.
Can always count on a Mahrez name drop
And maybe a little Draxler
I know it’s completely off topic but I found this too funny to not share it with you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMVbfTeGQX8
Conte’s press conference. Just listen to the few seconds from 9:47 on. One of the best bloopers ever, if you ask me.
Walcott isnt actually good enough for a club chasing title ambitions. The fact he’s been with us for over a decade I said an indictment on Wenger. No other top manager would’ve kept such a limited player for so long. We reduced the chances of guys like Gnabry and Campbell beause of Theo’s place in then squad. But do you know what’s a bigger indictment? The fact we may sell him when we need him, which is exactly how he’s lasted for so long. We never got rid because we never had any better. It was a marriage made of… Read more »
Lol you would have gotten rid of Theo at 19-20 years of age?
Sure your hatred for AW clouds everything you write. Campbell is crap sorry to burst your bubble.
Walcott is worse
Theos representatives managed to get two exceedingly good contracts for him because of the situation at the club when his contracts came up for renewal. They basically had the club over a barrel after RvP left, and made the most of it, and played hardball when he wouldn’t sign da ting. I think they pissed off the manager and the club and now it’s payback time. If Theo moves he will be unplayable for a couple of games ( he can do it!) then either get injured or fizzle out back to his normal feeble self. If we can get… Read more »
If Theo doesn’t play at Forest in the FACup then I suppose he must be off as he isn’t injured.
Comparing Welbz and Walcott, wenger is crazy!
how many times have we heard this story, I wish he would go, but we will see
I want to up vote this again
yeah, yeah, we,ve heard it all before, I wish it was true but I will believe it when I see it, his going is LONG OVERDUE
Get fuckin rid
….pls!!!!!!!!!!!
Arsenal are shit… Wenger is worse…and Theo is the worst of all.
A thoroughly disenchanted fan?