Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: Page 19 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

kamikaze

he's much better than he was, but combination play is not a strength of his, perhaps because of his late start in football. the team has lacked football intelligence for a while - you just don't see the same variety of goals and combinations that we did with the invincibles and earlier.

Burnwinter

Walcott will never be Henry, but it's worth remembering that he's 22 now, the age Henry was when he signed for us.

We never had to watch Thierry learn the ropes between the ages of 17 and 22. During Henry's stint at Monaco, in five seasons he scored 28 goals in 105 appearances.

At Arsenal Theo's had 34 goals in 117 appearances in six seasons, playing in tougher competitions.

Stats are comparable, ne sont-ils pas? The key thing now is to keep Theo, keep him injury free, and put him in a position to deliver for us.

kamikaze

very true. djourou's only 24 as well, which is even younger for a defender.

Burnwinter

We were always going to be put in this position by the youth policy. By getting them in young we reduced our signing costs, but we're still going to have to pay market wages to keep our quality now it's been developed.

The trouble is that now Theo's entering his prime and has his contract negotiation entering the pipeline, it would be no surprise to me to see him try to engineer a move to one of our cashed-up rivals. I can already just about feel it coming.

Rohit

Theo is not a wide player but he also can't play alone up front in a 4-5-1/ 4-3-3.

If we ever move to a 4-4-2 and move him central (he should never play on the wing in a 4-4-2), he would only be a better striker because of his education on the wing in my opinion.

Rex

Good post Burnsy with the Henry comparison. Perspective people!

Qwiss

Burnwinter wrote:
We were always going to be put in this position by the youth policy. By getting them in young we reduced our signing costs, but we're still going to have to pay market wages to keep our quality now it's been developed.

The trouble is that now Theo's entering his prime and has his contract negotiation entering the pipeline, it would be no surprise to me to see him try to engineer a move to one of our cashed-up rivals. I can already just about feel it coming.

Yep. I've had the feeling he's next since Nasri left. Why would Theo stay? What can we offer him? We have to give him the big money if we expect him to stay. Same is going to apply to Ox in a couple of years.

We might be lucky enough to see Wilshere, Frimpong, Gibbs, etc show some loyalty because they're Arsenal made players but I wouldn't count on it.

Ricky1985

I can't see Theo leaving myself.

Claudius

Ricky, you promised us that Nasri and Fabregas would stay on the eve of their departure.
Are you Arsene in disguise? 🙂

Pepe LeFrits

I can see Walcott going to Chelsea to be honest.

Ricky1985

Caligula wrote:
Ricky, you promised us that Nasri and Fabregas would stay on the eve of their departure.
Are you Arsene in disguise? 🙂

Hehe, changed my mind about 25 times on Nasri/Cesc.

Just can't see Walcott playing for anyone else. Truth be told, I'm not sure any of them would pay big money for him.

flobaba

and Why not? Chelsea was ready to splurge on the likes of Modric (i never rated him as highly as some do), and they do need a bit of pace injection in their attack, and City have shown repeatedly their willingness to sign any Clichy, Toure, and Nasri who's ever donned the Arsenal jersey.. Liverpool are going English so he might appeal to them as well.

Ricky1985

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think right now Walcott's held in high enough regard by the likes of United, Chelsea and City.

Claudius

He's a young English talent. Would easily fetch us 25m given the prices that United and Liverpool are willing to pay. I'm sure Pool and Chelsea would take a look

Captain

Some crazy foreign team would take him off our hands. Theo will do well to remember how lucky he is to be at Arsenal playing for Wenger.

Qwiss

Walcott could get into Chelseas first team handily.

Ricky1985

Could have sworn you rated Theo pretty highly in years gone by Capi?

Captain

I rate Theo as a player but let's not pretend; if he were at another club, he would have been consigned to the scrap heap ages ago just as has happened to guys like Kalou, Babel etc. If Arsenal signed proper players year in, year out, the same would have happened to him here as well.

Ricky1985

Not sure about being consigned to the scrap heap, but I get your drift.

Anyway, good little article from the BBC asking whether it's now time for Theo to play through the middle:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2011/09/is_walcott_destined_to_play_up.html

Timbob

If Theo leaves just as he's starting to become a genuinely effective player, after all those years of pitiful crap, it'll really take the biscuit.

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