Alex Oxlade Chamberlain arrived this summer as little more than a confirmation of Arsene Wenger’s flawed transfer policy, a throwback to the past as it were – an obsession with focusing on the future when investment was required on the present. Now, after an impressive performance on his Champions League debut, he now represents optimistic Gunners fans’ hopes of the future. Having mirrored the move Theo Walcott made back in 2006, a player 4 years his senior, the parallels are there for all to see. While Walcott is still striving to prove himself, will Wenger be able to steer Oxlade-Chamberlain in the right direction at a quicker rate? That is the challenge the beleaguered Arsenalboss has now set himself.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was always destined to be compared to Walcott. They both play in the same position, they both come from the same club and they both cost a disproportionate amount of money considering their relative inexperience in the top flight. However, dig a little deeper, and it
is as close to the continual folly by which Andre Villas-Boas is often likened to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. The differences are most definitely there, if you’d only care to look beyond the headline.
Theo Walcott is most definitely a mixed bag. Alan Hansen once derided the player on the Match of the Day sofa for lacking that most crucial of tools at the highest level – ‘a footballing brain’. Trying to come to some sort of concrete opinion on Walcott is an extremely difficult task; just when you think he’s turned a corner in terms of his development, a frustrating spell of indifferent form follows or an injury threatens to curtail all of his progress. Or vice versa, just when he’s been written off for the umpteenth time, he delivers a crucial goal or assist in a match of season-defining
importance.
While the pros and cons of a player such as Walcott ensure that he’s forever likely to be a player that divides opinion, one judgement that will unite most fans is this – he’s simply not developed at a quick enough rate considering his potential.
Walcott is 22 years of age now and he boasts a wealth of Champions League, international and Premier League experience. While it’s worth remembering that his career is still in its relative infancy, the inconsistency that has marred his play has shown no signs of disappearing anytime soon.
What is quantifiable though is the increased end product of his endeavours. Last season Walcott achieved his most successful campaign yet in an Arsenal shirt, scoring 13 times and assisting 8 goals across all competitions. For a player that considers himself to be playing out of position, that’s a healthy return by anyone’s standards.
Returning to Oxlade-Chamberlain, after the Olympiakos win, assistant-manager Pat Rice lavished praise on his club’s latest new-fangled youngling stating: “He has a big, big challenge to now get in front of Theo. It all bodes well for England anyway. From Arsenal supporters’ point of view, they are going to be seeing a lot of this boy,” Rice added. I know that Theo is a very strong-willed guy as well and he won’t give in easy. Alex can go inside, he can go outside, he’s got that injection of pace and I think what he needs now is to be consistent in his play. I am sure that is something he will be working on because he’s certainly not a stupid boy.”