He isn’t a key part of our squad, he’s a rotation player.
He’s 3rd highest paid because of the homegrown rule. Same reason Rooney is United’s highest paid player. Same reason countless other average players or on similar wages to Walcott, ie Lingard 100k, Rooney 300k, Milner 160k, Sterling 180k, Delph 90k, Young 110k. We aren’t getting bad value having a homegrown player of Walcott’s calibre on 110k a week.
Would it be great if the homegrown rule was abolished? Ofcourse but we have to work with it.
I’ve always felt Theo was well suited to Liverpool, Klopp could turn him into a monster, gonna have just as much difficulty getting gsmetime there though.
I agree, the guy apart from his odd contribution is utterly useless. Once his seed goes (1 injury away and also his age) he will be so much of a hinderance to a club…most times he cant stay fit. Even when he is fit he has barely any contribution to the game might as well bloody be playing without him. At a new club he will play like a house on fire for a while then go back to his lazy bloody sod jogging around like a twat!
Good article here is a snippet of it. There definitely is some truth to this, if we want to get anywhere we have to get rid of these types of players:
It was April 10 when Walcott had the dubious honour of being captain for one of the most notorious 90 minutes in Arsenal’s recent history: the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace, which had travelling fans funnelling their frustration at the team and manager from the stands at Selhurst Park. The fractious evening sent reverberations around the club. It was the low point of a season that was already limboing to its conclusion.
Walcott’s issues that night were threefold. Firstly, on a small scale, he was the figurehead for the abject surrender. Secondly, he made the grievous error of going on television to admit that “Palace wanted it more than us.” You might welcome such honesty if it spilled from the lips of Patrick Vieira, designed to spark some kind of reaction; from Walcott it just seemed pathetic, an insight into everything that was wrong with the team. Wenger was reportedly angry that his captain for the day had been so incautious in public, even if he had been honest.
Thirdly, and most significantly, the defeat inspired Wenger to make a tactical change that has made Walcott almost irrelevant.
Walcott’s big problem with the 3-4-3 that was brought in to stem a flow of goals is that it leaves him with no natural home. The wide attackers in the three, usually Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, are effectively inside forwards and require more cunning than Walcott can provide. He has abandoned his attempts to become a central striker, so unless he can perform the kind of transformation that made Victor Moses one of the unlikely heroes of Chelsea’s title win, and there is little evidence he would make an effective ersatz wing-back, it is hard to see what he offers his manager.
He’s probably still sitting on the bench from last season.
I wonder how long Wenger will keep him here?
He is the epitome of a Wenger player.
Bought when he was young, fast, injury prone, inconsistent, physically light weight, mentally weak and still here after several seasons of mediocrity even though his wages would suggest otherwise.