The Quiet Mercenary

by James Wareing

Next to blow go?

Arsenal are yet again confronted with another serious contractual dispute with one of their key players. With just 1 year left on his contract Arsenal and Theo Walcott are still locked in transfer talks. During the penultimate day of the transfer window it was announced that a short term agreement had been made to continue talks later, thus denying Arsenal their last real chance to sell him.

So as the situation stands if a new contract, that will leave him as

one of the squad's highest payed players if not the highest, isn't

agreed we are faced with either letting him leave in January for

peanuts or on a free next summer.

While fans have been divided on his impact since he joined from Southampton

in 2006 him leaving the club would be a big loss, as it stands he is

the club's highest scorer in the squad and one of the longest

servants. However having canvassed

fans’ opinions on twitter recently 65% would still offer him a new

contract while only 35% would let him leave on a free.

Arsenal insist that contract talks will continue and it does

appear Theo himself also wants to reach an agreement but time is running

out. If Arsenal do not sort this out before January 31st they will be resigned

to see him leave on a free next summer, something which would

be very undesirable. Therefore it is imperative that Arsenal either

sell him in January or sort out a new contract.

The major stumbling block at the moment, as it is increasingly

becoming at Arsenal, it money. For footballers money talks and I

suspect Arsenal are not near Theo’s own evaluation. You just need to

look at the transfers of Hulk and Witsel to see that, if you look

around, ridiculous salaries, doubling what others can pay, are

available. It has been widely reported that his demands are around £100k a week, a staggering figure that would surely make him one of the highest payed players in the squad, a status that I am sure we all agree he does not deserve.  This then raises the question of do we really need Theo?

Admittedly when looking at Theo’s stats last season his assists do

stand out. However for every assist you get with Theo you will see him

tripping over the ball or another disappointing cross. Theo for me is

a luxury player to have in the team. If you are a high-flying team you

can take a player like Theo along with you. He is a player that, for

large parts of a game, will have little impact. His strength is

clearly his pace and his ability to use this on the counter attack or

to get behind the opposition’s back line. However when teams sit back

with 10 men behind the ball, such as Stoke, his impact is less

productive.  His lack of strength lets him down as does his ability to

beat a player 1 on 1. It is in these games when it is clear that there

is a distinct lack of penetration from us that you need a player who

can make something happen. A winger who can beat his man or spot a

decisive pass, qualities I believe that he does not possess.

So over the next four months it seems Arsenal have a lot of key decisions

to make, the most significant of which is Theo’s future.  For me I

wouldn't mind either way which decision is taken except that this

doesn't drag on into across the season and create another bitter saga.

London based James Wareing runs a football quiz on twitter. 
Kick off is NIGHTLY at 6:30pm (GMT), check it out sometime.