He's not going to get much game time this year and he's going to have to earn it. Not sure he realises that fully

Well, I'd imagine he's more likely to contribute from the wing (with Ozil playing him in) then as a CF.

But fuck me, now you accept that?

Wenger putting this idiot on a 140k a week contract sums up why he's finished as a manager. He watched him play every day and still saw fit to make an incredibly ordinary footballer our 3rd highest paid player.

Good luck getting him off our books.

Good he's a decent wing forward. Just leave him there. Preferably not as first choice.

marv3llous wrote:

... this fucking guy is unbelievable really. He really is mugging us all off with this shit. For 10 years Wenger has persisted with him, while clearly he is a spoiled brat who regards himself over the team.

Walcott: "I have told the manager that I want to be known for playing on the right again, although I can play up front"

I'd call this humility, Walcott style. Bench him if we can't sell him.

just seeing walcott's face angers me at this point. i really wish we could sell him and get anything for him

"Nobody wants to sign me, i'll be a winger"

Don't know how Wenger/club management was taken in by this fraud.

Burnwinter wrote:

marv3llous wrote:

... this fucking guy is unbelievable really. He really is mugging us all off with this shit. For 10 years Wenger has persisted with him, while clearly he is a spoiled brat who regards himself over the team.

I'd call this humility, Walcott style. Bench him if we can't sell him.

Squad player on 140k a week?

pricey guy to have on the bench, which is where he should be. him and his agent played a blinder with that last contract negotiation

mdgoonah41 wrote:

just seeing walcott's face angers me at this point. i really wish we could sell him and get anything for him

This.

Haha

He needs to first get his shit together.

Did he say winger or whiner?

Jed wrote:

Squad player on 140k a week?

Look, I'd like to sell him but we can't sever our legal obligations, and no one else would want him at that price right now.

It was a little bit understandable at the time he signed, he's just had such bad performances over the last six months it's becoming unbearable. But don't forget 140k/week over a year is only a minor chunk of the transfer fee for any sort of decent wide player now.

There will always be contracts we wish we didn't have, and those we're lucky to have.

i hate him and the asshat leader of the club who thought this piece of shit was worth the effort.

Gazza M wrote:

pricey guy to have on the bench, which is where he should be. him and his agent played a blinder with that last contract negotiation

not really. that contract fell in their lap once we had cleared out all of our superstars. we had no choice but to extend him and have a good news story given the circumstances. 
as i said before, comfortably the worst player we've endured all these years given how much game time he's had. 

I'm not sure that's what he actually said - the article is awful.

That's not a quote.

Captain wrote:

That's not a quote.

It is a quote from the article.

Jed wrote:

Burnwinter wrote:

I'd call this humility, Walcott style. Bench him if we can't sell him.

Squad player on 140k a week?

Gazza M wrote:

pricey guy to have on the bench, which is where he should be. him and his agent played a blinder with that last contract negotiation

Signs with club in 2005.

No clue what his salary was when he signed. He signed an initial pre-contract agreement to sign a professional contract on his 17th birthday on 16 March 2006.

I'm going to just guess £10k per week for 4 years. But this is guesswork. That would take him up to Summer 2010.

That would mean a £2m contract.

In summer 2009 he signed a 5 year contract worth 60k per week. £12.5m contract.

In Jan 2013 he signed 3 1/2 year contract worth £90k per week. £17m contract.

Summer 2015 he extended for another 4 years for £140k per week. £29m contract.

Okay so the initial contract ran for only 3 of the 4 years, so £10k for 3 years is £1.56m.

May 2009 until Jan 2013 he earned 60k a week. (194 weeks) so from these dates he earned £11.64m

£11.64 + £1.56m = £13.2m from his first contract in 2006 until Jan 2013. Not bad.

Anyway, 18th Jan 2013 - 31st of July 2015 he earned 90k per week. That's 132 weeks.

132 x 90k per week = £11.88m.

£11.88m + the £13.2m he had = £25.08m

Now we don't know how long he'll be on his current contract for, he may get sold, he may extended etc. But I'll work out much he's earned thus far.

31st of July until the current time = 56 weeks. 56 x 140k = £7.84m.

£7.84m + £25.08m we've already given him = £32.92m.

£32.92m Arsenal have given Theo in wages.

I'm not sure if 10k per week for the initial contract is even close to being the amount, I just guessed that much. It would be 15k it could be 20k. So there is a chance that £32.92m is wrong, but it would only be marginally, perhaps a million or two.

That's also not factoring in things such as signing on fees/agent fee/image rights/Bonuses including goals scored/appearances/assists among other things.

You do realise everyone here is fully aware of the facts and we all, pretty much, accept that he has the best agent at the club who has negotiated a better deal than any of us would have agreed.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/theo-walcott-agent-will-negotiate-new-arsenal-contract-extension-1505032
Unless they used some unscrupulous means such as holding a gun to Wenger's head or kidnapping Kroenke's children, we can only STFU and pay him.

G.G wrote:

Captain wrote:

That's not a quote.

It is a quote from the article.

A quote from the journalist holds no significance.

Don't see anything wrong with what Theo said in that article to be honest. I'm sure he wanted to get a run up front but it's not like he pressured Wenger into playing him there after 9 years on the right wing. He played as a striker last season because Wenger wanted him there.

Agree with that. Also, getting back into the England squad as an ultimate goal implies doing well for us first.

invisibleman18 wrote:

Agree with that. Also, getting back into the England squad as an ultimate goal implies doing well for us first.

Exactly. Such a stupid thing to complain about.

I don't really care about what he says.

What annoys me is that he looks like he doesn't give a shit when he's on the pitch. He's playing like shit as well.

Nah, he does give a shit. I think too much in fact.

Nothing worse for a striker than not being able to find the back of the net, especially when you know there are doubts about you.

In reality he needs to step up but will only do that with 18 months left on his contract then we will um and ah about it. Then he will go to pot and leave on a free. Theo is a fraud player and should be first on the block with his wage demands, injuries, work rate and general attitude towards the game.

Seen enough of Theo to know he's far far better than what he showed last season.

But I've also seen enough of the pre-season to wonder if he's even motivated to get back to where he was, or understands what it takes.

I think his body is just done at top level. Speedy seems to have been spot on in his assessment. The last knee injury ruined Theo irrevocably. There's no balance, no acceleration and no pace. It screwed up the first touch he had worked so hard to improve too. I've seen this happen to more naturally talented players than Walcott and they never got their game back.

Right now there's the added frustration of low confidence too. He knows he's playing badly which puts greater pressure on him every time he's up against someone, and then he fucks up and confidence gets even lower and the pressure increases and then everything just piles on to the point where he can't even do simple things right.

He needs to be playing as striker again IMO, he's gone from being average running with the ball to utter shit. Those Leicester and United games where the most he had to do was control the ball and lay it off to Sanchez and Ozil was when the team looked at its best.

Klaus wrote:

I think his body is just done at top level. Speedy seems to have been spot on in his assessment. The last knee injury ruined Theo irrevocably. There's no balance, no acceleration and no pace. It screwed up the first touch he had worked so hard to improve too. I've seen this happen to more naturally talented players than Walcott and they never got their game back.

Right now there's the added frustration of low confidence too. He knows he's playing badly which puts greater pressure on him every time he's up against someone, and then he fucks up and confidence gets even lower and the pressure increases and then everything just piles on to the point where he can't even do simple things right.

Yeah, unfortunately if he's that far gone we can't afford to wait for him to reset himself. I like Theo and I don't think he deserves half of the stick he gets, but we're no longer in a position where we can gamble on these things, when we're already gambling on so many other things.

Klaus wrote:

I think his body is just done at top level. Speedy seems to have been spot on in his assessment. The last knee injury ruined Theo irrevocably. There's no balance, no acceleration and no pace. It screwed up the first touch he had worked so hard to improve too. I've seen this happen to more naturally talented players than Walcott and they never got their game back.

Right now there's the added frustration of low confidence too. He knows he's playing badly which puts greater pressure on him every time he's up against someone, and then he fucks up and confidence gets even lower and the pressure increases and then everything just piles on to the point where he can't even do simple things right.

Definitely. It's just annoying that we couldn't sell him before everyone else realised this. Hopefully he gets some confidence back before Jan, has a few good games and we can sell him on then. 

Yeah, a guy playing shit equates to the loss of multiple lives. Fucking idiots.

Only an utter cunt could write that.