To be convinced by the argument of another is a humbling experience, to renege on your own staunchly held beliefs through a process unaided self-discovery just seems sad. Yet, as melodramatic as it may seem, that is the situation that I find myself facing currently. I’m a long-standing supporter of Theo Walcott. I know every argument under the sun in his defence, and I believe most of them too, but his recent dip in form (a seasonal occurrence) has lead to the concentration on arguments of a slightly different nature. Perhaps the argument shouldn’t be whether or not he has what it takes, but whether or not his development has been stunted by something other than just injury?
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has seen his reputation as a nurturer of talent attract some of the brightest prospects in football to his club, and he earned it too. The likes of Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, Alex Song, Gael Clichy, Thierry Henry,Jack Wilshere and many others owe a lot to the coaching and confidence they received from Arsene Wenger. But that doesn’t mean he always gets things right. Getting the best out of young players is not an exact science.
Different players need help in different areas and looking at Walcott, now 22, you begin to wonder what it is exactly that is wrong with his game? And how long will he be a developing player? The idea, perpetrated by Chris Waddle, that he lacks a ‘football brain’ is not only a lazy and simplistic analogy, it’s also wrong. You can’t explain phenomena with concepts that don’t exist. You have confidence and a lack of confidence; not football brains and some equally conceptually weak opposite type of brain.
You have to be fair to Walcott: he has a hard few years at Arsenal. The call up to the world cup can only have messed with his head, on top of that he had the weight of expectation having signed for, in Arsenal’s terms, a largetransfer fee and he also had consistent injury problems to deal with. However instead of spending hours in the training ground and occasionally getting an opportunity with the first team wouldn’t Wenger have been better sending Walcott out on loan? Clearly Theo has a problem with confidence. In the past he always seemed overly meek and although their appears to be an air of bravado about him these days his woeful finishing of late says otherwise.
Zzzzzzzzzz…. How boring. This article is gash, time to delete, thank you newsnow button.
Has it not crossed your mind that Walcott’s current dip in form exactly coincided with constant changes in the personnel behind him? Last time I checked Arsenal were playing their 7th and 8th choice full-backs, with Sagna, Gibbs, Jenkinson, Santos, Vermaelen and Djourou all unavailable. Wait until Sagna is back (should be very soon) and them make a sensible judgement.
i would like to see Alex Oxade C play more games this year, coz from the look of things AOC seem to be much better than Theo W, Alex have a good brain on the pitch, have the skill to beat defenders and wanting to score
Only thing messing up Theo’s head is the initial hype and the unending interest shown by clubs in Europe for his services; mostly for his speedy play. The boy needs to understand he isn’t the finished product yet and must put more into the learning process. I am hopeful he will come through as he is only 22, anyway. Plenty of time for him to develop and play to the potential we all feel he has.