Well I didn’t start it, but there are lots of Arsenal rumours around saying that Barcelona have drawn up a short list of players, including Theo Walcott, that they want to replace the injured Brazilian Rafinha. The 22 year-old Brazilian midfielder has injured his cruciate ligament and is expected to be missing for the next six months (If he was an Arsenal player we’d be guessing more like a year!) Or, alternatively, they want him as a replacement for Pedro, who just moved to Chelsea.
This rumour is beyond ridiculous, even for the Spanish papers, so I am going to take it a step further and predict that, if this was true, that Arsene Wenger would respond to Barcelona by telling them they would have to do a swap deal, (make the call Arsene!) with the Gunners getting Lionel Messi in exchange for our Number One striker. I suppose we’d take Neymar or Luis Suarez instead at a push! Yeah right……
For starters, there is no way Barca would entertain bringing in a wannabe striker that has only started 16 games in the last three seasons, and I doubt he actually completed 90 minutes in more than a handfull of those, with another 16 appearances when he came on as a replacement sub.
Secondly, Walcott has made it clear over the last few years that he only wants to play as central striker, so surely he wouldn’t want to move to be put back into midfield even if Barca came calling.
Thirdly, Barcelona have already bought Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan, but they won’t be able to play for their new club until January. In which world would Walcott get picked in front of those two – or any of Barca’s three established front men?
Surely it will be difficult to make up a more unlikely transfer rumour in the January transfer window….