First Robin Van Persie to Manchester United, then Alex Song to Barcelona and now could Theo Walcott be the latest Arsenal superstar to leave the Emirates this month?
Arsenal’s contract talks with the England winger have once again fallen down and the player may now be sold, according to a report at BBC Sport.
They claim that talks between Walcott and Arsenal are still on-going and the 23-year-old is keen to stay at the Emirates and hopes to negotiate an extension to his contract that expires at the end of the season. However, BBC Sport claims reports today suggest Arsenal will sell the pacy attacker before the August 31st transfer deadline, unless a deal can be reached for an improved five-year deal, worth £75,000 a week.
Walcott started Arsenal’s home draw with Sunderland on the opening day of the season but was then left on the bench for Sunday’s o-o draw at Stoke.
Since joining the North London club from Southampton in a £12.5 million deal as a 16-year-old back in 2006, Walcott has played 222 times and scored 42 goals, winning 28 times for his country during this time. However, Arsenal have not won a trophy since Walcott arrived and he has seen at first hand all of Arsenal’s best players leave for pastures new over recent years.
Most worrying for Arsenal fans is that Walcott contributed 12 assists in the Premier League last season, the majority of which were for Robin Van Persie. Without Van Persie, Arsenal haven’t yet scored a single goal yet this season and the loss of Walcott, with little time to bring in a replacement, could be another blow.
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4 Comments
We got immediate replacement 4 walcot nd dat is MO FARAH.
Why is AW always foot-dragging over players? He will first make a very positive comment about a player, then, he’ll start haggling over the player’s cost. In fact, the way AW prices players is so annoying and demoralising even for the players. Is he the only manager who cares about transaction cost economy? Barcelona merely flew in to enquire about the availability of Song: pronto, within two days the deal was sealed. Chelsea will earmark a player, before you know it, the deal is sealed. That motivates a player to feel honoured, regarded and appreciated by the club. AW will express interest in a player, and when the club asks him to pay 10 million Euros, AW will annoyingly be pricing 2 million Euros. Does this entice the player? Does it tell the player that the manager values him? Imagine that Wenger has been haggling over M’villa, Nuri, Caine, and several players only to alert rival clubs. C’mmon, AW should make up his mind. He can’t do this in Chelsea, Man City, Man U, Barcelona, Real Madrid or any other top club. He should know, as an economist, that when you don’t seem to place much premium on a player in your radar, he’ll not be well motivated to give his best, and after a season or so, will seek exit to greener pastures. AW prices players low, pays them uncompetitive wages, and expects them to give their best. Imagine since Nasiri, Clichy and other players left Arsenal, they have not feigned injuries because they know they are in competition for regular play. They also know that if they don’t fight for regular spot, no club can pay them such uncompetitive salaries. So, they give in their best regularly on the pitch. It also gives the manager the confidence in team selection. Can Chelsea, Man City or Man U ever complain about playing Stoke or any club below their financial clout? As long as AW employs this iconoclastic economics paradigm in football management, winning laurels will be an elusive dream for the club. A competitive manager would have set his sights on immediate replacement of his top players, if he must sell them. Otherwise, what is the rationale for selling your top players to your competitors? As an economist, does it make sense to AW, beyond financial gains, to sell his top players whom he has spent years to groom? At the time the club expects to reap their benefits, AW will frustratingly sell them, instead of improving their wages. AW should know that Arsenal fans are fast losing patience with his inept managerial decisions over the past 7 seasons. If he wants to run a cheap club, let him go to manage a third division. For Arsenal to remain a top club, the manager must inject confidence in the players, club and fans through his fiercely competitive approach to club management issues, in particular player turnover and replacement.
I agree with you on some things but it is not that straight forward. A player with a huge price tag doesn’t always perform well, example Andy Carroll, Fernando Torres to name a few. In the case of Theo Walcott, he hasn’t really performed that well for Arsenal so far. He hasn’t been consistent, so a raise from 65.000 to 100.000 in wages for a player like him is sounds too much. If he gets paid that much then what about the other players in the team who are way better than him. Suddenly the wages will go sky-high and Arsenal don’t have rich sheikhs to cover them…
But the strategy of signing new players should improve. It takes way more time for Arsenal to sign a player than other clubs. And that is not good enough if we don’t want to lose big players to the clubs with big money.
i think if WENGA leaves this club we can do more better,the heart pain and disappointment we, as funs will be relieved.PLEASE WENGA OUT.NEW MANAGER.