Theo Walcott’s move to Everton is on the verge of completion after the players advisers held positive discussions with the Merseyside club yesterday.
Sam Allardyce has made it clear he sees the England international as a key target as he looks to add to his attack, having already brought in Turkish striker Cenk Tosun from Besiktas.
The 28 year old has a little under 18 months left on his contract with Arsenal, but has been very much a bit-part player this season. Arsene Wenger appears to have lost faith in him despite scoring 19 goals last season – his second best return since he joined the club as a 16 year old in January 2006.
It now appears as if the only thing left to agree is a fee between the two clubs, and it’s believed Everton will table a bid of £20m, with clauses that could see it rise to £25m, and it’s likely to be an acceptable offer for the Gunners.
Walcott will be targetting more regular first team football, and perhaps a World Cup place if he can play his way back into the thoughts of England manager Gareth Southgate.
All the best to him. Shame it never worked out, his pace and stretching of defences worked well when the opposition was favourable.
I’m sure he will do well in a more direct team under Big Sam.
He is one of the few players with a century of goals and assists for Arsenal. Believe it or not, he was a success.
397 games, 108 goals. I feel It’s a bit harsh to say it never worked out. But I get what you mean though, I guess we were expecting more. Can you realistically expect more than 400 games when you sign a 17-year old kid?
More goals and assists than Pires. Better goals per game than Ljungberg. In fact his GpG (0.27) is close to Bobby’s (0.3). For a 10 year stretch, it’s a really good average for a winger who’s played a large percentage of games as sub. You could say that he’s done pretty well for his skill set.
Probably less match winners though.
I don’t even think its fair to compare players from different generations. Especially Theo to those players you’ve mention isn’t fair because everyones roles were different.
I get what you are saying. I’ve been harsh on TW only because my expectations rise when a player earns the money he does. Thats only natural. If he was making half of what he is making then expectations would be lower? It wouldn’t be as harsh.
Best for all concerned – but I for one hope he finds form and goes to the World Cup. People forget how damaging the timing of his injuries were to his career. He has done some important and spectacular things down the years. Deserves one last shot.
110K off the wage bill wow. If Arsenal like wasting money why not give me 10K per week just for fun. The club will still be saving 100K, I mean think about it. Could someone pass on the message to Kroenke. #Pay10KtoTooDrunkToBeOffside
Once Theo leaves who will be our longest serving player in current squad? Is it Wilshire or did Ramsey make his first team debut ahead of him?
Well, it definitely won’t be Sanchez, that’s for certain
Ramsey has started earlier for the first team, Jack has been longer in the team.
Ramsey made his competitive debut a full month before Wilshere. However Wilshere, being a academy product, has been at the club longer.
Good luck then. Hope he finds form and consistency there. Interestingly I really am interested how it turns out to get out of his comfort zone. Hope he is allowed a coffee machine though, good lad.
Good luck Theo. I thought we was a seriously good finisher but hasn’t developed to the next level under wenger.
I will be watching to see how things go for him at Everton…
The next level is the next level is the next level
How many players have everton bought? Would have joined Southampton if I was him.
Everton might not be doing well atm but are a much higher profile team(than Southampton)
If he went down south he’s just a stop gap before coming back up to Merseyside anyway :p
I think Everton poses more of a threat to us than the likes of Man City or Man U. With Wenger in charge, we won’t be mounting a title challenge, let alone win it. With another manager, we’ll still struggle as we lack depth and quality in all areas and i’m not sure silent Stan will be wanting to spend the kind of money that will be required to bring in world class players. I said a while ago that our natural standing for this season would be 5th/6th, we’d do very well if we reached 4th and over achieve… Read more »
Oh cheer up mate!
I am surprised more people don’t consider the similarity between this transfer window and the few days following our 8-2 defeat, when Mert, Park, Arteta and dat guy were brought in. It was a shopping scramble, not a carefully planned strategy, and the whole Aubameyang, Mikhy and Malcom doesn’t fill me with joy as they’re reactive buys.
So you’re not happy to be linked with great new players? Who would you rather we sign?? Malcom excites me most and looks like it would be Mislintat’s first big signing from a scouting perspective.
Add in legit CB not named Evans I would think this would be an excellent Jan transfer window
Agree to some extent. Am bamboozled that knowing Sanchez was going (& let’s all be honest here that we all knew since the summer that it was happening), we haven’t bought players in already. Seema very very reactive rather than proactive, especially for a manager, who at least on paper has/had a new 2 year contract. Complete fiasco.
I like who we are being potentally linked with, but we are yet to land a single signature…let alone get all 3.
Thank Goddd!! Finally!
Good luck to him. Let’s hope we reinvest the money received and quickly. I also hope that he isn’t one that gets boos when he comes back, say what you will about him, but he always seemed like a really nice bloke.
£20m won’t get you anything more than a starry-eyed young attacking prospect or a big fish in a small-pond league somewhere in Europe or South America
£25m for Walcott, £35m for the Ox and possibly £35m for Sanchez. That’s a pretty decent wedge to reinvest.
Reinvestment is unlikely with our current ownership and his son on the board.
If Walcott gets boos that would be so laughable
Bit of a shame… never seem to develop anything beyond his natural pace…
Not sure how he’ll do as his pace wanes but all the best to him!
Agreed on the developing nothing further than pace, he had no particular ball or dribbling skills bar a goal each against Newcastle in the 7-3 and the 5-3 win over Chelsea respectively.
However I think I remember him falling over in those as well…
That run against Liverpool with cross before we blew it was more than just running. I’m just saying.:..
To be fair to Walcott.His finishing was no where near as good as it is now. He worked hard to improve it, and did develop it. Just the other parts in his game that are missing never surfaced.
Very good finisher in recent years, good intelligent runs off the ball, obviously great pace, much more likely to track back and defend then given credit for; poor first touch for this level, poor close control.
So Farewell Then
Theo Walcott
Thanks for the FA Cup final goal
And some other moments
Every now and again
Not your fault you were injuredy
Quite a lot
And a bit shit on occasion
But good luck anyway.
Anyone else thought this was a poem?
Private Eye
RIP
Wait, are you saying it wasn’t a poem?!
I always loved Theo – even though he never reached the heights we envisioned for him and was quite bland in interviews. But when he had a good day, he was be unstoppable. And his ability to conjure goals and assists despite having 0 impact on the game otherwise did save us a couple of games.
I’ll still miss him.
Get the funds and invest in Mahrez and i know we wont.
Good luck Theo in blue.
He should have work more on his dribbling and he will be damn useful cause of his speed.
£20m for Mahrez?
Not feeling Mahrez, 100m, Malcom has far more potential and loves to go past players
Bring it on
100m?!
Is this also a poem?
His leaving is a bitter pill that will make us better, only if we replace wisely.
He is shit in the league but he always did well in big CL games against Barca and Bayern. Players like Alaba and Messi were afraid of Theo. He will be missed. I for one was hoping Welbeck would leave and we’d see Walcott and Aubameyang together but if Everton are willing to pay 30 million i’d be tempted to take it.
Let’s hope we have a good replacement line up.
Good job for Barca that they never stuck Messi at left back.
I don’t begrudge Theo anything. Was hoping he was going to be the next Henry when he arrived but didn’t have the tricks in his locker but on his RARE days, you have to admit he was electric.
I mean if wenger pulls of these signings. I
ll admit i am impressed. It will make arsenal alot better. Sad to sell to utd, but for that price Ill take it. Many ifs here, but stil.There’s a single ‘If’ in that statement.
Jesus christ. English is my fourth language. Norwegian, german, spanish and english. I was not aware this was an english lesson, i am sorry.
Easy Tiger Easy Tiger. It’s just a fact he stated, take it on the chin. We get that you are very intelligent and speak alot of lanuages and don’t have tine to be preoccupied with logic.
Despite having his limitations, Theo is a faithful servant. A heavy weight leaving our payroll.
January always seems to have more than 31 days……
Can’t wait for all the ins and out to finalize
Is this, too, a poem?
Where are we on the new manager front?
look forward to Theo always liked watching him, do not understand letting player go with goal in his locker still Gunners loss are gain
True Blue
thdo will get goals garanteed as teams won’t sit deep and Park the bus against Everton all the time.
So he will have space to run in to, he will big a great buy.
Often found Theo maddening, especially recently, but he gave us some great moments: The FA cup final goal, the stumbling dummy vs Chelsea (and Newcastle!), the strike against City, delicious goals against Sp*rs in the first 5-2, oh and the 2-1 fingers on the stretcher!
2-0, wasn’t it?
Yes it was! Oops..
Everton must be thrilled as we are 🙂
I always liked Theo as far as clubman goes. He is an Arsenal fan. That 2-0 salute whilst on the stretcher to the spuds fans will forever be my lasting image of Theo.
His goal in the League Cup final and celebration with Henry was a special moment too. Good lad Theo. Hope he does well at Everton.
Good luck Theo. very underrated player who has stagnated like others at our club. He’s a player like ox, who will only improve under better coaching conditions. I wish him all the best.
Although Walcott has not performed on the pitch as everyone wanted and expected with his abilities he has been professional throughout his time at Arsenal. It is certainly time for many changes at Arsenal so hopefully we can get the money reported for him and invest it immediately.
Good Luck Theo. Remember how excited I was about Theo when we bought him. Every season it was just a case of how good will be the next season.. he will be coming of age and all that!. Years went by and we slowly even stopped realising he was growing old. To be fair to him.. he was not half as bad as we touted him to be.. infact only recently he is being caught offside so many times.. I generally thought the runs he made were brilliant. It was just that.. he is not suitable to our style of… Read more »
I’m not sure what our style of play is. Can you enlighten me?
I agree but there comes a point you need more than that. If it weren’t for his salary I could stomach him being a super-sub role but since we aren’t one of those types of clubs where we can sit a 100K player as a sub its hard to justify having him on the club.
somebody top it up with Welbeck too, to them. What Welbeck does or actually does not on the field makes me wonder why is he still starting.
To all the people glad he is going… Please Imagine what Theo could do against our defence.
You’ll find out pretty soon. Probably destroy us on the counter attack, is my guess, seeing as we can’t defend for shit.
I’ve given him nothing but stick, but genuinely wish him nothing but the best.
Someone has to be coming in now, surely. Our squad is so thin without signings.
This is a great move for both Arsenal and Walcott. Arsenal because we are getting around £20m for a crap player and Walcott because amazingly he will still play in the Premier League!! What’s behind Everton’s thinking is a mystery.
Of the 20 teams fielded in the Prem every week, Theo would make 13 of them significantly better (all but the top six and Leicester).
I feel for Walcott, the hype surrounding him as a 16 year as the saviour of England FC created a false sense of expectation on his shoulders and he’s never lived up to it in the eyes of so many. He basically never stood a chance in hindsight but as far as I’m concerned he’s done well for Arsenal and I think if he’d been surrounded by better quality talent throughout (we’ve always been that extra 2-3 world class players short of being right up there challenging for the league title) his record and performances would have been better. For… Read more »
I think this sums up how I feel, and I hope that Arsenal fans will remember him this way when he comes back; he deserves appreciation and affection.
Just curious how many World Class players should a contender have?
Yeah expectations that were on his shoulders sucked but all players get that or almost close to that.
I really think its that salary he got on his last contract. More money you make bigger the expectations become.
My best memory of him was in the league cup final. We had a huge youth team, Walcott, cesc, Lord bendtner, etc it all looks so promising, our youth team….
It was fun, we led 1 nil, against Drogba,
Ballack etc…
Theo Walcott has some good numbers.
397 appearances
108 goals (0.272 goals per game)
78 assists (0.196 assists per game)
Not bad for a winger. The thing you have to remember is Theo is often used as a substitute or substituted.
When you look at his contribution per 90 his numbers are actually very good.
23481 minutes (59 minutes per game)
0.414 goals per 90 minutes
0.299 assists per 90 minutes
I reckon he also holds the record for minutes on the bench for an outfield player.
But he also left Theo sized holes in the pitch too. I can only think of a handful of games where I thought he played really well. But I can think of a lot of games where his invisibility cost us. Stats aren’t a true representation of contribution. Arsenal have been using stats for the last few years to sign players and it’s not worked out that well has it.
You don’t score a 100 goals if you’re completely useless, always felt there was more to come from him but he just couldn’t produce it.
A different voice on the training ground and approach could be just what he needs.
As for us, his departure opens up the opportunity for Reiss Nelson to get more game time and that kid has serious talent.
Feeling a bit sad over this…….his goals to games ratio isn’t so bad and he did score 19 last season, then again he did hold us to ransom not so long ago. However, I suspect he will get a warm round of applause whenever he returns – Sanchez, on the other hand, will not.
As we praise his professionalism and love of Arsenal, let’s not erase his demand to be a striker and his holding the club over a barrel in all recent contract talks. He’s certainly within his rights to have done both, but it’s farcical to pretend they never happened for the sake of a good eulogy.
Better schedule that testimonial quick. Walcott up front, and all 10 of his fans on this site, dressed up as Gunnersaurus, backing him up.
Against a bunch of one-legged droids.
Good name for you.
Seeing as Rooney rarely passed to him (even when he was by far the best option to pass to) when playing for the national team, it’ll be interesting to see if that changes in a club level team.
IT crowd will need to update their script for any repeats
See ya Theo, your agent played a blinder.
Good luck Theo, you left me feeling happy, frustrated, but ultimately disappointed with your performances.
Some Players have drive and push themselves to progress and better themselves.
Some players need their football education coached into them, sadly you appeared to have had neither.
I hope big Sam makes you the player we thought we’d get.
ATB
Theo is the one who is good at making a run behind defenders and offside most of the times. But sadly, he cant prove his worth because he didnt get enough minutes in PL games. He plays a lot only with 2nd team so he didnt always get the balls he wants.
He’s having a medical!
Everton is getting a young and exciting prospect who will surely blossom into a world-class striker once he gains some experience and learns to stay onside a bit more.
If only he were given more opportunities at Arsenal…
He has no touch, constantly offside, admitted to knowing before a game the opposition wanted it more. Honestly always said the goody too shoes answers to the press. Sorry but WE invested a lot of time in him and he couldn’t even play football. Without his extreme pace he wouldn’t be anywhere near top level football. No natural ability on the ball. Nice guy i guess? so i wish him all the best.
Him and Aaron Lennon on the wings… if PES6 was still about, that’d’ve been fun!
Arsene Knows … does he ?!
Not for a long time now no
Good.
He is a one trick pony.
We need nuance on the right even if should Alexis be kept on.
Mahrez is my preferred choice. Same price as Malcolm more or less, cheaper than Aubameyang in a position we actually need, and more articulate than Mhykitarian.
Geez you can’t just let one post go on Mahrez. Always figure out a way to sneak that in. smh
Offside!
Given some of the transfer fees we read about, it does make me think we sell our player’s very cheaply?