Morning all.
“I’m not going to lie, I fell out of love with football for a little bit. Because I had some good performances, but then just didn’t get the chance to play on. “Scoring over 100 goals for Arsenal is a great achievement for me personally, and then just the last year-and-a-half was tough, I can’t lie. It was really tough, not being able to get into the team, being in and out.
“I just felt I wanted to get the excitement of football again. I didn’t feel like it was going to be at Arsenal then.
Sam at the time got in contact, and I felt “yeah, this is the right move for me”. I got the buzz and enjoyment back, and I couldn’t be in a happier place to be honest, I’m playing football with a smile on my face. I just love football again.
Theo Walcott was just one of many marmite players during Arsene Wenger’s reign. Personally, I always thought there was a very good footballer in him but he made the wrong move and too early in his career. Wenger didn’t help him much either because whilst Sven-Göran Eriksson was contemplating taking him to the World Cup all those years ago, the Frenchman should have said no. He was too young, not only age wise but certainly in terms of experience. Instead of training hard and then sitting on the England bench for the entire tournament he should have been holidaying in the sunshine with his mates or his family before preparing for his first full season at Arsenal. It really was a terrible decision all round and one which I believe cheesed off his fellow international ‘teammates.’ Not that it was his fault.
Was he a talent in the making? Yes, I truly believe he was, after all he didn’t get where he was back then by being rubbish did he and Southampton are well known for bringing good players through their academy. What happened to him after his Arsenal move will always remain a mystery to me but he’s not the only young player to have offered great hope on arrival only to improve very little. Or those coming through our own academy who so often looked like they were a season away from making the step up into the first team, but that next step up never came. Another season in the reserves or another out on loan where they seldom played, and then they were gone. People will always say ‘well what have they done since leaving Arsenal, which is a fair question but after ten/twelve, sometimes more years at one club believing that you’ll chance will come, only to be rejected at the last minute, must be a bitter pill to swallow. It must be so difficult to pick yourself up and start all over again with very little self confidence. Especially when your still quite young.
For twenty two years Arsene Wenger was the Arsenal manager but during that time, how many players did we had in the first team who we could call our own? I don’t include the senior arsenal players he inherited.
Jack Wilshere is the only one I can think of. Maybe Alex Iwobi too but even he wasn’t exactly a regular was he? In fact on Thursday he played his best game in an Arsenal shirt in my opinion but one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Gibbs, Djourou? Academy players yes but again, neither really ever convinced many of us here on HH.
Finally though, that could all change as we’ve many players who are at that ‘next season’ stage. They’re getting playing time albeit it’s limited. Smith-Rowe, Maitland-Niles, Eddie, Nelson (on loan) and then there’s the likes of Willock who we might see involved in the League Cup on Wednesday evening.
With a whole new coaching team within the club, my hope is that our players both young and old will learn more and quicker. As the saying goes, if they’re good enough, they’re old enough and Guendouzi has proved that Unai Emery isn’t fazed by age.
On Sunday when Everton travel to The Emirates, there’s little doubt Theo Walcott will receive a warm welcome. He’s back in love with the game after leaving Arsenal and he’ll want to do well on his return to the club he was at for twelve years. Nacho Monreal might have a tough job on his hands, or Sokratis and Mustafi if Walcott plays central. Maybe even Bellerin or all four.
Which makes we wonder if Marco Silva has worked out which is Theo’s best position.
Arsene Wenger certainly never did…
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Good morning Rico, I just love Marmite so no problem with feelings about Walcott, A great talent who suffered some long and serious injuries, a talent wasted by Wenger’s dithering over where to play him. Left wing? right wing? down the middle? Like many other players in the Wenger years he suffered from the managers apparent belief in all players being suited to all positions. Jack of all trades and master of none. the only position not affected by this wrong-headed belief was goalkeeper.
Theo deserves, and should get, a warm welcome from the faithful tomorrow and, with generosity of our defence, a fair chance of a goal or two.
On an entirely different subject, well almost, could the answer to our centre back problems be solved by the signing of the soon, January, to be available Gary Cahill. A vastly experienced defender with ample Premiership experience. Okay he’s thirty two but that should not stand in the way. He hasn’t played a single minute for Chelsea this season and has indicated that he will be prepared to leave Chelsea in January.
I commend the idea to the House.
Morning Cicero.
Funny you should mention Cahill, I was wondering the same. I can’t decide if he’d be a good addition or not. If he was free we’d have nothing to lose I guess, but I’m not sure he is.
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Rico, I think we would have to pay for him in January but as he’s out of contract in the summer it wouldn’t be a high price. A loan move in January with Arsenal contributing to his wages and the strong chance of a contract at the end of the season might appeal to both him and Chelsea.
Morning Rico and all.
I fell out of love with football too but then someone offered me another 50 grand a week and guess what?
Yes, I fell back in love with it again.
What a load of old bollocks.
Fair point Cicero and it’s not like we couldn’t do with a bit of experience in our defence.
Morning Adam. I can actually see what Walcott is on about. Wenger’s football caused me to lose interest in the game, must be worse to actually be coached by him each day doing the same old boring stuff..
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Adam, to be in Walcott’s position, fit but not getting a game must have been soul destroying. Perhaps Moshiri and Marco Silva recognised a talent, which Wenger had ignored, and thought it well worth paying for. As Walcott said in the interview, he’s now playing with a smile on his face.
If you were in a job with little prospect of fulfilling your ambitions and somebody offered you the chance to do so, and offered more money, would you turn it down?
Perhaps if he grew a pair Rico he might not be such a snowflake. He also might like to dwell on how bloody lucky he has been and consider how hard some very decent people find it to survive in this uncaring society that we live in.
He represents all that was wrong with Wenger’s later years for me.
I can see where you’re coming from Adam, but Wenger’s downfall was not improving the player and then standing by him for too long. Walcott problem was staying put, he should have left ages ago and gone to a club where the manager/coach could get the best out of him.
Cicero, I think you and I are on the same page. 😜
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Great minds think alike. 😀
Or is it dull minds etc etc…. 😜
Ramsey is another, he seems only interested in the money. One great season, a few good performances here and there and now he wants a massive payrise. Has he really improved since joining Arsenal?
Afternoon Rico/Adam/Gooners.
It feels a bit nippy today, just put the heating on…
Tony Blair as the supremo of the Premier League, is it April 1st..?
Theo always struck me as a sensible young fella, therefore he must have been well aware of how his words will be manipulated, so I can only assume that meant to stir the pot prior to tomorrow’s game.
Frankly I don’t have any strong feelings either way, players come and players go, some we will always remember fondly but most of them are easily forgettable and that’s where Theo resides for me.
What’s more important to me is how we defend on Sunday, it’s not the end of the world to concede as long as we score one more, but it would be nice to see our defending becoming more watertight.
Afternoon Kev, ours has gone on today today. Cold, wet and miserable…
At least we know Everton are as bad as us at defending. 😜
I do think a clean sheet would do the team a world of good though, confidence wise.
Bloody winter is on its way Rico, not looking forward to it at all.
Haven’t Everton got or had a load of injuries, especially in defence?
Maybe it’ll be 0-0 😉
Four months of snow I read Kev, deep joy..
Not read they have injury problems, would be handy though. Lol
Richarlison is back which is a shame..
Ashley Cole?
Bob, I forgot him, thanks. But Adams was the man who coached him I believe..
It’s really annoying to see that BT Sport have hoovered up the Europa, with no highlights on terrestrial tv. So it’s gonna be go to the games, Arsenalist or You Tube, but BT can do one.
In case anyone is interested there’s League Cup highlights next week on Quest, a channel I’ve never watched before, but there ya go….
Arsenal U18’s winning 4-1 at Norwich.
RIP Chas. I would comment further but perhaps it would be in bad taste… 😜
Your argument re Walcott completely ignores the fact that with 21 goals the season before his career was derailed by his ACL injury, Theo was well on his way to fulfilling his potential. He hasn’t been the same player since. I’m also pretty sure Arsene knew his best position was wide right
Afternoon all.
No Cahill for me. A few years ago when old mother Wenger was in charge, before he went to the chavs, but not now. He’s a bit too old and not as reliable as once he was. Apart from which Koz should be back by January. I think he and Sokratis will make a fairly formidable central pairing, for the rest of this season, at least.
And, as for Walcott, I was really sad to see him leave. Yes, he was a Wenger failure,C the old geezer’s fault, imo. On the rare occasions that I saw him live, I always felt that given the right service he would do something exceptional, either by making or taking a goal. He had that kind of flair. But, I reckon the old coach talked him out of his natural game, such as it was, and he stood still. After his critical outburst last year he hardly played again. Wenger was nothing less than spiteful when scorned. For all that, I did understand Theo’s frustration and annoyance at being overlooked and replaced by Iowbi who was nothing like the player Walcott could be. Anyhow, I hope tomorrow is not total payback time!
Really autumnal here. Cold, damp and drear. There’s even been talk of lighting the wood burner!
Afternoon all and thanks Rico.
I liked Theo and thats it !…………………he would not have suited Dicks game as he`s not a “presser”, he saves his energy for the sprints !
As for now playing with a smile on his face, well I suppose that makes a difference as when he wasn`t getting too many game here on £100K PW he was smiling all the way to the bank instead……my heart bleeds !
🙂
Leave the bad taste to me Rico !……………I dont give a fcuk as he was a Spud !………………….weirdly enough I look on to my fields and all I can see is……….Rabbit…….rabbit………rabbit………
Yes, there was a few back in the day who I thought were dead certs to make it………………Chucks Aneke………JET……….Miyachi…….Daniel Crowley etc etc, but I do think in…………..Eddie….ESR………AMN………..Nelson……Amaechi we have some which have raised the bar potential wise, very excited about the current crop and the ones pushing behind them !
Cahill no for me aswell !
And we have had some real rain for the first time in months here………..proper wet cold stuff and boy does the land here need it !
Sorry you were stuck in moderation NM, you make a valid point re Walcott’s injury but I’m far from convinced about Wenger knowing his best position. Didn’t he once say Theo has to decide?
Always count on you Lc. 😜
Wavy, I was sad to see him go too. I accepted he had to for a few reasons, but as you say, he’d cheesed Wenger off and after that he was finished. That’s Wenger though, or rather it was..
Wavy, you are assuming that Koscielny comes back fully fit and at the top his game. That hasn’t been the case for a couple of seasons now so I don’t think we can rely on him for more than the cup games, unless Mustafi gets even worse than he is at present. Even then we have Holding and Mavropanos in reserve. Cahill would make a very good replacement for either Koscielny or Mustafi.
Theo showed some spurts of superb form usually around contract renewal time, and I can’t hold that against him as anyone with extra incentive will play with an edge-we
See it all the time- but imo, we can’t solely blame poor coaching on the fact he was massively inconsistent during his time with us.
If Wenger were really so bad, why is it hardly any player that left actually became a better footballer?
Now, we can all name a few, but we can also name a hell of a lot more that we fans thought should’ve been retained, yet faded into obscurity.
I honestly reckon most of it is down the individual.
I mentioned this recently-when we beat City 2-1 a few seasons back and played a tactically brilliant game, word came out that Arteta actually formulated the game plan.
If something can change so drastically in a week, why can’t we defend any better now after Wenger has been gone for months?
Where’s Stan??
I’d love to know what Sean is in for tonight at the PSV v Ajax match!!
I doubt he will have ever seen anything like it!!
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G’day to you all, no need to water the pitch this afternoon.
Here’s my starting line-up:-
Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Sokratis, Monreal, Torreira, Elneny, Ozil, Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan and Lacazette.
I don’t expect Unai to agree with me 100%, but I reckon seven or eight are right.
Morning Cicero,
I like your line up, but reckon he will stuck to what we’ve started with of late.
Morning you two.
New post up now.
Morning all.
Cicero, yes I was assuming Kos returns to full fitness. If he does I’d pair him with The ‘sock”. But Holding is or rather may be a very suitable sub for the club captain.
As for today’s team, I rather think that Dick has caught Wenger team selection disease! Eg, pick the same players over and over again. Change may be fatal! So I believe he will pick Bellerin, Mustafi, and Xhaka. Plus ça change….!
Interesting article about Gazidis in the Telegraph today. If I were a betting manonclue that he was ‘pushed’ rather than he went willingly. Only my opinion.
Blue skies no wind but still cool.