Theo Walcott joined Arsenal from Southampton at the tender age of 17 and came with an amazingly big reputation for such a young man, but injuries seemed to always blight his career, especially with the England team, at the wrong moments. But last season, the winger came good with 19 goals in just 37 games playing from the wing and many Arsenal fans thought he had finally reached his potential.
This season, though, Walcott was relegated to the reserves as Arsene Wenger tinkered with his formation and dispensed with classic wingers in favour of defensive-minded wing-backs, and although Theo was probably in the best form of his life he simply couldn’t get a game, so it was inevitable that he would have to leave the club if he wanted to reignite his career.
Sam Allardyce stepped in and persuaded Theo to move to Everton, and it seems to have reinvigorated the Englishman and he scored both goals in just his second game for the Toffees and Big Sam can’t believe how lucky he was to get such a fine player for just £20million. The Everton boss said: “I can’t say what Arsene [Wenger] thinks, but the opportunity to take a player with last season’s goals record and that quality [for £20m] wasn’t a big decision,”
“A lot of things have been said about Theo – he hasn’t reached his full potential and all that – but I don’t know how you could say that after last season’s performance with 30-plus games and 19 goals.
“If he’d have been playing a lot this year he would have been happy to finish his career at Arsenal. But because he wasn’t getting his game time, he looked at his career and decided he had to leave.
“He chose us and hopefully he’ll be a big player for us.”
Theo certainly seems to be happier now that he is a first team player again, and we can only hope that he doesn’t take out his frustration on the Arsenal defence this evening. He certainly knows exactly how they all play!
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