Have boots (in a bin bag in the dead of night) will travel

WALCOTT’S UNDIGNIFIED EXIT FROM ARSENAL CAN’T SPOIL EXCITEMENT AT JOINING EVERTON

THEO WALCOTT has regrets over how his time at Arsenal ended, but there are none over the decision he believes will resurrect his career.

Everton’s £20million signing revealed – with a hint of sadness – that his departure from the club he served for 12 years was low key, as he left late at night with his kit stuffed in a bin bag.

Only a couple of security guards were there to see him off, a sad end to his Gunners career.

But the England star realises that becoming an outcast at the Emirates had tainted his football at what should be the very height of his form.

“When I left I wouldn’t have liked to have gone at night and picked up all the stuff on my own, but that is how it is,” he explained with a shrug.

“I had to get my stuff quickly. There was a sense of people being surprised at how quickly it happened and I had to go at night. It was quiet – there were just a couple of security guards around. All I had to put my boots in were some bin bags – it wasn’t the way I wanted to leave, but knowing it wasn’t official yet, that no one knew about it and I had a long way to travel, I had to find time to go in.”

Walcott said Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis suggested the club will say goodbye properly when Everton travel to the Emirates on February 3.

Yet the wide man knew it was time to go after being cast into the Gunners wilderness at the end of last season then further into the shadows this time out.

And while he would never criticise Arsene Wenger – “I have such great respect for him” – the player plunged into the spotlight when Sven Goran Eriksson picked him for the World Cup with England aged 16, hinted that he needed a new boss to get the best out of him. The criticism of Wenger in recent years is that he no longer develops world-class players such as Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry and Walcott said he signed for Everton because of Sam Allardyce’s manmanagement. “The manager seems to get that out of the players, he seems to get the best out of you. At this moment in my career I need that.

“Still being only 28, it’s young and the best years are to come I believe,” he added.

Walcott played under Allardyce when he was briefly in charge of England and enjoyed theexperience, saying: “I just felt it was the enjoyment of the training every day, a work ethic, a desire to improve players.

“And also being straight to the point with what he wants from a player and a team. I like that. When he came to Everton, when you come to a club in a difficult stage, it is hard to boost your players, but he got the results.”

Walcott knew he could have sat out the 18 months left on his contract then moved on a free transfer, but could not face the humiliation of being an outcast.

“That enjoyment might not have been there obviously for the last few months,” he added.

“Not being part of something, it’s quite hard to take when you have been a club for such a long time then not knowing if you are really part of it any more.

“I haven’t been on the field with my team, that is what you want as a footballer, you want to go out there and play.”

Asked what tells him Walcott still has the desire to play at the highest level, Allardyce replied: “I have no doubt about his hunger because he decided to move.

“Theo insisted to Arsene he needed to let him go. I don’t think Arsene wanted to lose a player of his quality, but the frustration of last season and his lack of football this season was a breaking point.”