THE GREAT WALCOTT DEBATE
He scored more than 100 Arsenal goals but has he EVER lived up to his potential?
SIMPLY HASN’T IMPROVED ENOUGH
IAN LADYMAN THEO WALCOTT has been typical of what has happened at arsenal in recent years. Sadly, that is not a compliment. Talented, fast and earnest, the winger has nevertheless underachieved. He still looks like the same predictable, straight-line runner he was when he first came to our attention ahead of the 2006 World cup.
He has not improved. Well, certainly not by enough.
arsene Wenger’s teams have had too many of Walcott’s type in the last few years. Players who decorate games rather than fundamentally dictate their course. Walcott has for too long been an ornament at arsenal. He has looked pretty enough but what has he actually done?
With this in mind, I am surprised Sam allardyce has signed him. Watching Everton play so limply at Tottenham last weekend, it struck me how listless they were. They were not like an allardyce team at all and Walcott doesn’t feel like an allardyce player.
allardyce does like flair players. He has signed many before. But he also likes players strong enough to take hold of games and change the course of events.
Walcott has never looked like that kind to me. But maybe allardyce can find the missing piece needed to turn Walcott from a good player to a very good player.
Wenger couldn’t do it. Walcott is 29 at the start of spring. If there is something more to come, he has been hiding it well.
GREAT CHANCE TO REVIVE CAREER
JAMIE REDKNAPP THEO WALCOTT has probably looked at his former teammate alex Oxladechamberlain and seen how much his career has benefited from leaving arsenal for liverpool.
This is a great opportunity to get away from his arsenal comfort zone. To elevate his career once more, he needs to put himself under pressure and that is what he is doing by moving to Everton.
He will need to get fitter and stronger but he is a very talented player who can play as a striker or out wide. Everton have always had good wingers with pace and he can do well there. Walcott knows he has got to get his career back on track and that is why he has made this move.
ALLARDYCE WILL MAKE LIFE SIMPLE
IAN HERBERT WHEN Theo Walcott was playing well a few seasons back and demanded to be given a chance as a central striker, there was a problem. It was quickly apparent he no longer had the speed of old. Even though Everton need strikers, Walcott looks like a greater asset in a wide role. He could find life liberating away from arsenal.
But just as important as the assets he might deliver is what his new manager brings to the equation, where he is concerned. Everton supporters may be unconvinced by Sam allardyce but players will tell you they love him, because of the uncomplicated instructions he gives and because of his clear idea of where players can most damage opponents. Wayne Rooney has looked a different player since allardyce arrived at Everton and identified a deeper role for him. at Bolton, nicolas anelka also flourished under allardyce.
It’s Walcott’s last chance to make good on international promise that, with only 30 starts for England, has been so far unfulfilled.
WENGER WAS NEVER CONVINCED
MARTIN KEOWN TAKING Walcott to the 2006 World cup aged 17 having never kicked a ball in the Premier league put far too much pressure on him. How could any player have lived up to such expectations?
arsene Wenger thought Walcott was going to be the next Thierry Henry but it never happened.
I was working at arsenal when Theo joined. You could see him glide effortlessly through all the technical work in training. He had a real natural ability and was like a Rolls-Royce with his movement.
I remember when he beat four players to set up a goal against liverpool in the 2008 champions league quarter-final. I thought that would be his breakthrough moment but we only ever saw glimpses of greatness.
The stats do not lie. Of Walcott’s 397 games for arsenal, 145 were from the bench. Wenger was never fully convinced by him. Wenger
will invest time in his players but once he thinks your best has gone he will move on to another player. Theo has not started in the Premier League this season and looks like he has lost a bit of desire.
Walcott may be leaving a great club but he is joining another. Now, every time Walcott takes to the field in the blue of Everton he needs to prove that Wenger was wrong to let him go.
He moves with high expectations. As a former Everton player, I know the total commitment their fans expect and he has to give absolutely everything.
But Everton are signing someone with blistering pace. This is a great chance for Walcott to relaunch his career — and Everton could have a real player on their hands.
WORLD CUP SPOT IS STILL POSSIBLE
CHRIS SUTTON THIS is a good move for both Theo Walcott and Everton. While Walcott has enjoyed a good career at Arsenal, he has never achieved the superstar status expected of him after he burst on to the scene as a teenager.
At 28, he needs to be playing regular first-team football but his Premier League appearances this season have totalled just 63 minutes. Walcott had become a bit-part player at the Emirates. He was drifting and had to get away from Arsenal.
While his link-up play is not good enough for him to warrant starting as a centre forward, he remains a massive threat coming in off those wide areas. His explosive pace is something Everton have been crying out for this season. If Sam Allardyce can help him rediscover his confidence, Walcott can be a real asset to this team.
I do not think it out of the question that Walcott could go to the World Cup if he hits the ground running. He has missed a lot of football this season but there are 15 games for him to make his mark. With the pace he possesses, Walcott can cause any defender problems.
HOW WILL HE FIT IN AT GOODISON?
DOMINIC KING THEO WALCOTT to Everton: the headline catches the eye. And sitting with Sam Allardyce at Finch Farm last Friday, his enthusiasm for potentially working with the player again was unmistakeable.
Walcott was in the squad for Allardyce’s only game in charge of England, so he knows the player. But what are Everton buying? They have been chronically short of goals and attacking reinforcements are desperately required but he seems to be a player without a specialised role.
So exactly how he will fit in at Goodison Park?
Back in July 2011, when Arsenal toured Malaysia, Walcott told
Sportsmail that he had ‘wanted to play up front’.
Five years later, when Arsenal toured the United States, Walcott told this newspaper: ‘I want to make my position on the right.’
Will he play up front alongside Cenk Tosun? Will he take the position that Yannick Bolasie and Aaron Lennon have occupied on the right of an attacking three?
Those are the questions Allardyce must answer to get Everton moving forward.
If Walcott can fire under Allardyce, though, Everton will certainly improve and if the 28-year-old wants to see that life can keep progressing away from the Emirates Stadium, he need only look at Alex OxladeChamberlain across Stanley Park.
A change of scenery may light the spark again.