Not my kind of player at all. Thick as a house brick and his technique is poor when it matters. Actually it's just poor generally.

Gervinhoesque

Boy can run, but that's about it.

Weirdly enough, got a meet a big dortmund fan yesterday. Quite confident that they'll keep Reus but might sell some others. 

Wouldn't mind this guy. Hasn't done much against us but his goal scoring record is a bit too good to ignore. Bit like Theo I suppose. Also have to bear in mind that he was basically playing for a team that was fearing relegation. Don't quite know his contribution towards that. 

Rucks wrote:

Boy can run, but that's about it.

Bit like Theo in that sense, but with better physical requirements to play up front.

speedy wrote:

Sign him now. He's a but clumsy in style and inconsistent with his finishing but he got 25ish goals last season. His pace will open up the front line like theos pace does. This guys linkup is far superior to Theo. And wellbeck cant move or finish I hate seeing him up top he just posses of the other players. Nothing pisses players of more than playing with a Shit striker.
Sell wellbeck should still get 10m for him I reckon. Aubameyang is twice the player wellbeck is. It's a massive upgrade where we need one most.

Interesting points. I don't think much of Aubameyang, but I don't watch him play that often either. Definitely think there's some logic to this.

Walcott's movement and finishing is a lot better than what Aubameyang has ever shown IMO. I don't get the 'physical requirements' or similar talk some put up either, especially when we see a midget Agüero dicking on the PL every year.

...With a striker up alongside him doing all the donkey work.

Rucks wrote:

Walcott's movement and finishing is a lot better than what Aubameyang has ever shown IMO. I don't get the 'physical requirements' or similar talk some put up either, especially when we see a midget Agüero dicking on the PL every year.

Aguero usually plays off of a big striker though.

its because he has incredible ability and loves the challenge of physical battles. Similar in some sense to Alexis now, but more similar to commentary genius Owen. It's certainly the model Theo needs to follow. But there's no doubt that, as a CF, height should give you a major advantage. If technically superb Van Persie is 5'9 he never becomes a top CF. these very fine margins seem petty but they're incredible important, and I think that's why Wenger is obsessed about height in CFs. 

Rucks wrote:

Walcott's movement and finishing is a lot better than what Aubameyang has ever shown IMO.

Walcott's finishing is absurdly overrated by Arsenal fans. He's missed chances that Giroud would have been hung for since he came back. It's the same story every season. Fit or not he has three good months and then his performances dip and he can't buy a goal. The ability to finish is there, but it's inconsistent. I'd back someone like Aubameyang to get more goals for us any day.

And, no, you don't need to be massive to play as a striker in Premier League, but you need to be physical. No way around it. If you can't handle the duels against the centrebacks you're dead in the water. Agüero is a physical player. Alexis Sanchez is arguably the most physical player we've got. Theo Walcott... is a lightweight by comparison.

Theos finishing is very good, he missed some chances when he wasn't 100%. When he's up to speed he's lethal. He's also a lot stronger than he was a couple of years ago. I don't see any physical problems really. His issue at CF is he can't play with his back to goal, not because he's lacking physically but because he doesn't know how.

You fail to take into consideration that Walcott was out for a year and when he did play he was not match fit and played like once a month. It's to be expected that he'd be rusty after so long out of the game. Walcott has always been one of out better finishers and the whilst Aubagmeyans finishing leaves a lot to be desired. Given the same time up front I'd bet anything that Walcott would outscore the Dortmund guy.

I've considered his injury. I just don't think it's very relevant in the grand scheme of things, because he has a habit of being inconsistent. He goes missing for several months each season. Back in 12/13 he was on a hot streak for a couple of months, got his new deal around Christmas, and then he scored like 4 goals for the rest of the season. The only reason he's not called on it (like, say, Giroud) is because he's not our main goal outlet.

In 12/13 Walcott scored almost 1 in ever 2 games, from the wing. I'd say he wasn't called out for it because thats pretty damn good. To describe it as inconsistency to not score more than that is churlish.

I haven't gone over how many goals he's scored but Walcott has a habit of being injured a lot and missing big parts of the season. But the point I'm trying to make is that the numbers aren't even that important because he was always playing on the wing.

Despite that he regularly gets really good numbers considering the position he plays. Like you said he hes not our main outlet for goals and that's because he's been in the wings. So raw numbers don't paint the whole story.

My point being that his finishing has always been a very strong part of his game along with his movement and pace. That he doesn't score more regularly is down to injuries and role in the team.

I don't think 28m is too much, that's the going rate for a striker who has just netted 25 goals in a poor Dortmund side. Strikers are at a premium these days.

Qwiss! wrote:

In 12/13 Walcott scored almost 1 in ever 2 games, from the wing. I'd say he wasn't called out for it because thats pretty damn good. To describe it as inconsistency to not score more than that is churlish.

I just said that my issue with him was that he's inconsistent. In 12/13 he scored 3 goals past January. Who cares what his numbers were in the end when we're discussing consistency. A player who basically stops scoring for half a season is by definition inconsistent.

Would you consider Cesc inconsistent?

I don't know how much that is an indication of Walcott today though. And that's the trouble with Walcott, he was 23 in 2012 which was his last full season (the same age as Jack now) and it's forgivable for a 23 year old to be inconsistent.

But you just can't tell if he's progressed or regressed since then because he's barely played. I wouldn't be surprised if a full season under his belt would iron out any consistency issues in his game but I have serious doubts over his fitness.