THEO JOY AT GOOD MOVE
WALCOTT THRILLED
THEO WALCOTT believes he can reignite his career at Goodison Park under Sam Allardyce.
The winger has signed a three-and-a-half-year deal at Everton after he completed his £20m move from Arsenal last night.
The 28-year-old had fallen out of favour at the Emirates and had not started a Premier League game this season for the Gunners.
But he has arrived at the Toffees with a point to prove and revealed former Three Lions team-mate Wayne Rooney helped convince him to join.
Walcott said: “I’m very excited to be starting a new chapter and I felt this was the right place for me to
be. The manager is very ambitious and I feel like the club is going in the right direction.
“I’ve had a couple of chats with the manager and straightaway I felt that hunger and that desire that he wanted from me.
“I need that and I wanted that.
“I want to be part of something which he’s building and, like I said before, it’s a very ambitious club.
“I’m dead excited and I just want to do what I do best, which is playing football and expressing myself because I’m excited again, I really am.
“I do really believe that I’m going to give it my all, which is what I always have done, and this place is going to get even more out of me.
“There’s something about this move which I’ve just felt good about.
“It felt like it was time for me to move on.
“It was sad but it’s exciting at the same time. I want to reignite my career and push Everton to win things as they have done before.
“I just want to play football and enjoy it again. I feel this move will make that happen. I feel like the players have got a point to prove, I have got a point to prove, and it is going to get the best out of us.”
Rooney was also a big factor in convincing Walcott that Goodison Park was right for him, despite the interest from his former club Southampton.
He added: “I had numerous chats with Wayne and that was one massive factor which really tempted me to come to Everton.
“He told me it was a great place to play football and a club that is on the up. Those are the reasons I came here.”