Paul Merson has claimed that Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud should be unhappy with their lack of playing time at Arsenal.
The duo both began Friday’s 4-3 win over Leicester City on the bench, and came on to help turn over the 3-2 deficit. Giroud even bagged himself the winning goal in the 85th minute to show his worth to the Gunners, but he will remain as the club’s second choice behind Alexandre Lacazette, who opened the scoring.
Olivier has been linked with the exit door all summer, knowing he would now be playing second fiddle to the club record signing from Lyon, but has declared that he has no wish to leave the club, and will stay put.
Theo Walcott has also been linked with moves to West Ham among others, but also seems keen to stay, despite struggling for game time since the club switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation during last term.
Paul Merson believes the pair should be unhappy with their situations however, claiming they should be eager to play regularly especially with the World Cup coming up next summer, but both wish to continue in their bit-part roles instead.
“They’re all happy,” the former striker said.
“You say about keeping them happy, they’re not fussed, you never see any of them wanting to leave.
“If I was Walcott I would be doing what Coutinho is doing now and saying ‘I want a transfer, I’m not playing, I want to play football’.
“But they don’t do they, they just sit there, it’s nice isn’t it’, it’s just lovely. It is, it’s nice, they’re loved.
“I feel sorry for Giroud because he is France’s centre-forward and the problem will be if he doesn’t play this season, will he go to the World Cup?
“All these footballers will be looking at that this season.”
Are Walcott and Giroud keen to fight for their place, or simply happy to play minor roles in the side? Will both be on the plane to Russia next summer?
Pat J
Maybe there are no clubs interested in them, all the news might be just rumors. Or the money is more important than the World Cup or their careers.
Merson is right, if I were Walcott or Giroud, I will submit a transfer request. Walcott is still 28 years old and Giroud is France’s main striker.
I just hope they stay because they really want to win the Premier League with Arsenal.
U simply are ignorant.
What do people really want?
Giroud wants trophies for himself he has said it. He can’t leave, he wants more trophies other than the FA cup. Tell me if he leave for Eveeton or West Ham, will he ever come close to a Semi final not to mention trophy? Besides he’s not getting his pay cheque for free unlike Walcott. Giroud deserves what he’s getting, he earns it, he’s worth it and i don’t find anything wrong in him staying to fight and win more trophies since him, you and I know Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern won’t come for him. The dude is loyal and deserves to be respected.
Walcott on the other hand, i’ve never heard him complain, the dude is just a minus to us on the pitch, waste of money and time. Ten whole years!! God!! Even Giroud hasn’t had up to ten years with us and he’s already on his way to being in the club’s top ten list of highest goal scorers. Walcott is the one satisfied, and doesn’t care. I wish we can just give him out for free, I just want him out of the club so his salary can be given to players who will earn it. Giroud is Top class. Walcott?? yea well, i can’t even say it
I agree wholeheartedly, Giroud is worth his wages, in fact give him Walcott’s wages too.
If I were Giroud at 30 I will ask to be played at the 60th minute or less and that way I think he can be a goal a game player. that will be at least 30 goals per season. Trust me he can do it
lol you guys talk lot of rubbish walcot is ok can you guys tell me how many goals he score last season for a wide player and for junky merson haven’t heard him saying anything nice about arsenal he’s getting like stuart robson
Paul Merson again. Very difficult to please everyone.
Paul Merson seems like he is being paid to talk sh*t about Arsenal. First game of close to 50 matches and you want them to leave, can any one player play up to 50matches in a season, big clubs rotate players, big clubs have big players.
I bet Paul Merson wud b the first to point out that we need to sign strikers if we didn’t have this much, now he is there saying we have too many.
Carragher, Paul Merson, Neville, Shearer, Wright and the Durham guy, there seems to be a media campaign against Arsenal, whatever we do is criticized.
Imagine people criticizing Kolasinac and Lacazette for a good showing. Berating Wenger for having too many strikers.
We true fans need to be wiser, we are our teams biggest threat, they need confidence to perform, we need to support them and not join the negative media campaign against The Arsenal.
Every time Mr Merson says anything in the tabloid HE is getting a pay cheque so any comments are for this reason. Once a GOONER ALWAYS A GOONER so I will let him off.
Paul Merson is the worst! He said Liverpool should sell Coutinhon to Barcelona and use 90 million to buy Sanchez! Imagine! I think he is too dumb or he just want to pull Arsenal down at all cost. Walcott can only take a step down if he leaves Arsenal, it was due to the media pressure that made Jack Wilshere think he needs to be playing every week, hence he ended up with an injury and no FA trophy. Whereas he could have stayed and become a major part of the team when we started struggling last season. He said Watford will not play well without Troy Deenee and that they are surely going down, look at their performance against Liverpool! He said Arsenal should have signed Joe Hart! Even Torino manger said he couldn’t believe he his English number 1, Torino were almost relegated because of his calamity, Liverpool also rejected him! Maybe he is better now. Paul Merson just say whatever he wants.
100% agree wit you tekena
I think they are both committed to playing For the gunners, and be key players If other get injured and with Europa league football we need a big squad
Hey! Does this Guy need a raise, an alm or something. A club like Arsenal cannot afford not to have enough players. Now fans still want one more signing, and here is a supposed ”expert or ex-player” who learnt nothing in his former trade, and modern squad side.
He simply accepted to be seen stupid.
on a night fueled by overindulgance in weed cakes and late night drinking our manager had what he thought was a vision. something like an aberition or polergeist convinced him to make ‘theo captain’. I say it because no human being, animal, fish, molusk or foul would be bereft of reason to ever hav come up with that idea.
*walcott and gunnersaurus have similar fear factor.
The facts are that neither of them would go to a bigger or better club than Arsenal, and if we didn’t have the likes of Giroud, Walcott etc on the bench, he’d be saying our squad lacked depth.
Teams like City and Utd have world class players on their benches, why doesn’t he say they should put in transfer requests, why is this coked up clown constantly trying to sell our players, and put the team he played for down.
As for bringing Coutinho into the argument, WTF is he thinking, it’s Barcelona who want him, not friggin Everton!
It’s best to do what I do, just ignore the frazzled brain idiot.
That Merson guy is just stupid. Why would any sane arsenal fan think Giroud is not needed at Arsenal.
Paul Merson again!
this guy played football but talks like a person without football brain.
he just like talking . Merson is so annoying
its an admirable quality giroud has he defies critics and consistantly puts the ball in the net lately altho wenger has found the best way to complement his productivity by allowing him on to the field as a sub. he has not allowed complacence to hinder his form and fans are tolerant of his bit part role in this team.
theo came to us as a boy and a story accompanied his arrival. basically it was that he could outrun his predecessor thierry and with that he was whisked off to warm subs bench in the world cup. noone at that point appreciated its poosible for players to be possesed of speed and little in the way of anything else. at this point in his carrer he stands in the way of young guns like r.nelson coming through and he is paid over and beyond his worth. its almost as if he waiting until he is pushed or till he has a statue.
No one else is stupid enuff to take them off us
There’s no way to compare between Giroud and Theo because Giroud wants to play regularly and will fight for first team and he’ll do it in all possible way and on the other side Theo is not at all a fighter, never deliver on a consistent basis. Worst part is he not knows very well that he’s being overly paid for doing nothing where’s he’ll have to work hard, score more on a regular basis and earn much less than what he’s now. In short he’s good enough for a mid table team with a weekly wages of 70k to 85k per week. So Wenger will have to make a decision and he’s not going to do it for more playing minutes. He would rather receive 140k without much hard work. That’s Theo.