Theo Walcott has taken the brave move to talk to Arsenal’s official website following last night’s painful defeat to Crystal Palace, and admits his side let the fans down.
The forward is our longest-serving player at present, and is also one of the most targeted players in the squad, but he hasn’t allowed himself to become disillusioned with the support, and he has come out to tell the fans of his disappointment.
“The biggest thing was letting the fans down tonight,” he told Arsenal.com. “We all did and that’s not Arsenal at all.
“We thought we’d bounced back well against Manchester City and West Ham at home, but tonight that wasn’t us at all.
“We’re very disappointed in that dressing room, like the fans are as well because we’ve let them down tonight. We need to respond and that’s only going to come from hard work at training.
“We don’t go out there to lose games, we try to work the best we can but tonight it just didn’t happen. All we can do is apologise for that performance tonight.
“I think they just wanted it more,” he added. “You could tell they wanted it more and you could sense that from kick-off. It was an uphill battle towards the end.
“This isn’t Arsenal in this moment in time. We thought we’d got out of this little rough patch before. Hopefully we haven’t been dragged straight back into it, but judging on that performance tonight, it looks like we have.
“We go out on the pitch and we try to do a job, so we’ve let the manager down, like we have with the fans. That’s all I can say.“
I think we were all of the belief that we were going to kick on from a couple of positive results, believing that our bad run was behind us, but we have given all our rivals the biggest boost in the race for the top four.
Is Walcott trying to take some of the pressure of the manager? Do more players need to speak up about failing the fans and the club?
Pat J
At least he came out and spoke despite the bad loss. But he put his foot in it by saying they wanted it more from the first minute. Have they no competitive streak, they are sportsmen aren’t they. When you seen what you were up against did you not feel the need to fight fire with fire. That is what we loved about the old teams, if you wanted to try bully you’d get slapped back down. If you tried aggressive tactics you’d only be poking the bear. All you could do was watch as Arsenal played second gear, but if the need arose like for a tough encounter, the players reveled in it. It is sad to look back at what we used to be to then witness the sorry state we’re in now.
No point in working harder in training if you leave all your effort in London Colney! This lot are spineless and having Walcott as Captain and spokesman proves it. There is something wrong at Arsenal in a similar way to what happened at Leicester, none of the players will openly criticise the Manager but at the same time, none of them are playing for him. The big difference is that Leicester were Champions last year, Arsenal don’t have much quality in the squad, especially when Sanchez leaves.
I’m afraid we’re going to have a couple of tough transition years when Wenger leaves, but if he stays nothing will improve and the tough transition years will just be postponed.
The hard work starts now.
All far too little and far too late don’t you think Theo.
Or can you think Theo – because those with a brain would keep their mouths shut.
It’s an admiral to come out and say we let everyone down and try take shoulder some of the blame. But I think Jamie Carragher summed up his speech by saying actually when saying ‘this is not Arsenal tonight’ like it’s some kind of one off event, even a unique season but it is the current Arsenal and it’s what the fans, pundits, and other Teams who face Arsenal all know. If you go at Arsenal they don’t like it and back away some say bottle-it. If you had Adams or Viera stiff there saying this was not Arsenal tonight we awould all agree but not this Arsenal. I think it’s plainly simple as to why Arsenal are where they are, and it’s because since building the stadium and money being directed into this project over an extended period of time say 10 years (which I might add is understandable) the strategy then was to finish top four keep the funds coming in by finishing top four but not spending too much on players to see them through these years. As a strategy it was the correct one and was delivered to pin-point accuracy. However, from the top to bottom, root and branch Arsenal is geared up to finish forth. However, because they gone from a winning the PL club to finishing top four they were able to sustain this for an extended period but now because they have maintained this strategy instead of setting a new strategy to win the PL again they don’t have any of those characters and quality players like Adams, Keown, Dixon, Henri, Viera who have that steel mentality and desire to win medals true Leaders and supporting staff through the club set on winning then it becomes acceptable even celebrated well done chaps another last 16 and top four finish great season bonuses all round boys on to the next season top four last 16 chaps let’s go do it again. You can see how it becomes engrained into every fibre of the club. I love Wenger and Arsenal but what they need now is a very strong leader who can come in set the winning strategy to achieve a Winning the PL and CL target over a three to five year period reset the strategy clear out the mediocre and replace with winners and fighters and leaders. This cannot be achieved using the same leadership that’s in place now. I’m not talking everyone but I am talking manager, coaches, scouting, and Chairman or CEO. MYbe Wenger can have a role maybe he heads up the scouting of new players as he does have a good eye for finding talent. But we need a new CEO, and new Manager and a Director of Football. They have to set the Strategy and execute it.
Why do people want Wenger to stay in some capacity? He’s a control freak and would just get in the way. No decent Manager would want him looking over his shoulder. Let him move on to a new project and let Arsenal rebuild. Don’t feel we owe Arsene Wenger anything, he’s earned over £120m since we last won’t the League!
I won’t remember Wenger as a legend.
I will remember him as the deluded dictator who failed to achieve anything worthwhile in the last thirteen years.
But most of all I will remember him as the one who put himself before the club, the players and most importantly the fans and allowed the team to stagnate into the spineless bunch of bottlers who run away from a challenge.
He destroyed his own legacy by refusing to believe that football has changed since 1996 and failing to adapt to that change.
A global laughing stock is what he has become.
The sooner he goes the better..
He’s just learnt a level of bs from his mentor … Wenger and Walcott sum up the sorry state of arsenal over last decade .. Delusional manager and one truck footballer … Time for a complete makeover
The hard work should have started pre-season!
When Walcott realised that Crystal Palace wanted it more than his team wasn’t it his job as captain to cajole and lift the team and compete? Couldn’t believe it when he was named captain, just goes to show the lack of characters in the squad.
Good luck next season guys, with Wenger gone I’m sure Arsenal will be a force again.
Sure trophies are no guarantee but I can assure you this team will have more spine under a different manager which is a good start. There’s a lot of respect between our clubs and (which is rare in modern days football, especiallyamongst rivals) long may it continue.
Getting Sanchez will put us level with the likes of Barca, Madrid and Bayern from an offensive perspective. And I promise we’ll make them pay for what they did to you in the CL.
You can have him for £50m no problem just be wanrned you can’t sub him once he starts a game Conte Would get the best out of him I hate to say it playing alongside Hazard and Costa would be mind blowIng and Kante buzzing around as well.
He is not speaking in sympathy for the fans, he is defendig Arsene, No wonder Arsene is starting him match after match though he sometimes does not even touch the ball for 10-15min. He is patetic talking about hard work.