THREE-0 WALCOTT
No regrets for wonder-kid Theo as Wenger says ‘I can’t believe he’s 30’
IT was a landmark birthday to make many of us feel old.
Theo Walcott, football’s original boy wonder, has turned 30, which seems impossible because he was supposed to stay young for ever.
If Jadon Sancho and Callum Hudson-odoi were surprise England call-ups, the 18-year-olds have nothing on Walcott.
The Everton winger went to the 2006 World Cup aged 17 after a £10million move from Southampton to Arsenal and without having made a Premier League appearance.
His former boss, Arsene Wenger, paid a glowing tribute, saying: “I can’t believe it but he’s an ’89. I wish him well and many more years at the top level. He is serious and focused and that’s a good platform.”
Two moments of contrast in Walcott’s career should perhaps serve as a warning for the likes of Sancho and Hudson-odoi.
The first was Sven-goran Eriksson taking Walcott to the World Cup, where he spent most of the tournament taking home videos and did not get near the pitch because he was nowhere near ready. It also put an unfair spotlight on him.
Then there was September 2008 in Croatia where Walcott at 19 became the youngest player to score a Three Lions hat-trick.
That changed everything, with expectations spinning out of control and his career since compared to that night. A hat-trick in every game is impossible and yet, when people talk about unfulfilled potential, they overlook the fact he scored 108 goals in 397 games for Arsenal, largely from the wing, and won two FA Cups – playing a part in reaching a third final.
Even more impressively, Walcott was an Englishman who played for a top-four club in the Champions League and for his country for more than a decade.
Should he have won more? Possibly. But he was in an Arsenal team in decline, weighed down by the cost of a new stadium and unable to repeat Wenger’s glory years faced with the wealth of Chelsea and the Manchester clubs.
He never did play at a World Cup, having not been selected in 2010 and injured in 2014.
Sancho and Hudson-odoi have immense potential, yet putting on too much pressure gives them unrealistic targets which is why they must be cleverly managed.
Yet to suggest Walcott’s career has been anything less than a success is unfair because anyone in the top one per cent of a profession is doing very nicely thank you. Walcott’s dad Don said: “I’ll always be so proud of him, from the moment he put on his first Southampton shirt.
“Even from when he was 16, he stood on his own two feet. He’s an adult now and still makes all the right decisions.”
The big decision to leave Arsenal in January 2018 was brave and he signed for Everton having been persuaded by Sam Allardyce. A few months later, Marco Silva took over as boss and Walcott has been in and out of the team.
Everton fan and broadcaster Mike Parry got to know the family down the years and remembers meeting Theo for the first time.
“I was in a box at Arsenal, I saw this little chap wearing an Arsenal shirt with Theo’s number on the back and Dad written on the top,” said
Parry. “It was Don and he invited me into their box at the end of the game.
“I was standing there having a chat, got a tap on the shoulder and there’s Theo thanking me for coming into talk to his mum and dad. This fella had scored a hat-trick for England a year earlier. It was surreal but typical of Theo.
“The problem for Theo is he signed for Sam and is now playing under Marco. But he’s certainly an addition to the squad.”
Reflecting on his career last year, Walcott said: “Football is about opinions, but love me or hate me I don’t really care,” he said. “I genuinely wouldn’t change anything, I don’t have any regrets.”
Love me or hate me, I don’t care. I would not change anything