It's the end of the season
Arsenal and Theo Walcott end on a high, winning the FA Cup and from a personal point of view, Theo bags a hat-trick in his last league game, and scores the opener at Wembley
Marvellous! Hugs and kisses all round and much celebratory back slapping and congratulations ensued
But now what? Arsenal finished 3rd in the league, a full 12 points and a goal difference 6 less from the champions Chelsea, meaning Chelsea could have afforded to simply lose 4 of their 1-0 wins by the same scoreline and still have finished above the Gunners
This has to be addressed, and addressed while Arsene Wenger has an air of success and progress to add to the attraction of The Emirates
What Arsenal require is a world class striker
Someone to compliment his world class midfielders and Alexis Sanchez who appears to be world class irrespective of wherever you play him
Theo Walcott is not world class
He is, however, English, thus his market value is inflated by default, and his recent goal flurry after coming back from a truly awful injury has only served to supplement that valuation
In a world where Adam Lallana cost somewhere in the region of £25 million, Luke Shaw £27 million, and Andy Carroll £35 million Walcott's value would probably slot in somewhere between those however, in 9 seasons Walcott has only once made it into double figures in the league, and at international level, if you discard the hat-trick against Croatia, his record stands at : Played 37 - Goals 2
Even with the hat-trick included 5 goals in 38 games, the equivalent of a full league season, is by no means something to brag about
Let's put that into context
Week in week out TV pundits and newspaper columnists alike claim Oliver Giroud is good, but not the world class striker Arsenal need
Giroud has scored 41 league goals in 97 appearances across 3 seasons whereas Walcott has 50 league goals in 208 appearances spread over 10 seasons! There's simply no contest between who is the more effective striker, and while you can argue Walcott is often played wide, so was Thierry Henry
Arsene Wenger is a cunning economist
The time has come for contract negotiations for Walcott and he will doubtless be hankering after a raise to place him on the same pay scale as Sanchez and Ozil
The logical thing to do is sell Theo now while he still has a high market value, and use the money recouped to finally purchase a world class striker, pay his wages with a large chunk of what would be Walcott's newly negotiated contract's outlay were he to have stayed, and lay down a marker to the Manchester City's, Chelsea's and Man United's of the Premier League that Arsenal now mean business
The FA Cup is fine as a starting point, but to compete in the elite levels of the Champions League and to stand a chance of winning the Premiership Arsenal and Wenger need to have the courage to not allow sentiment to stand in the way of progress
It's time to say goodbye to Theo Walcott and transcend the levels Arsenal have been content with for the last 10 years.
Source : DSG
Source: DSG