Theo Walcott - Why he is important to Arsenal

As everyone knows, this has been yet another difficult transfer season for the Arsenal fans to digest. It did start brightly, with Arsene Wenger signing Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud even before pre-season started. But then things started to get worse.

Robin Van Persie released a statement that he was not willing to sign a new contract with the club, and joined Manchester United shortly afterwards, adding insult to injury. Arsene’s best signing of the summer came right after that, Santi Cazorla from Malaga. He looked like a class apart, being the best player for Arsenal in the first 2 games they played.

Alex Song left soon after too, and although rumors suggested several reasons for his departure, it looks like the reason he actually left was due to the salary which Arsenal offered him, which made him unhappy. Song left for Barcelona, for a fee of around 15 million.

Undoubtedly, RVP and Song were the two best players for Arsenal last season. The former being their highest scorer and the latter being their highest provider. Wenger said that he saw Giroud as RVP’s replacement, and although he said he will replace Song, he is yet to sign a defensive midfielder, with time running out.

The latest speculation around the internet is that Theo Walcott has apparently refused to sign a new contract with Arsenal, and the club are willing to sell him if he doesn’t sign a new contract within the next 48 hours. Selling Theo Walcott would mean something disastrous to Arsenal, moving forward. Theo scored 11 goals and contributed 13 assists in the Premier League last year. He was the best English winger, with only Wayne Rooney contributing more goals than him.

Walcott’s situation will be clearer within the next 24 hours, and if it is confirmed that he is going to leave, it’ll undoubtedly be a huge loss for Arsenal. No matter how inconsistent he has been for us at times, he has always played an integral part in our victories. He scored against Manchester United, Chelsea and scored a brace against Spurs last year, and really came to the party at big games. If Walcott is to leave, then it would mean that Arsenal would have lost their top goal scorer, second highest goal scorer and their top 3 assisters last season (Theo,RVP,Song).

The problem currently is that not many fans realize the importance of Theo in our team. They’ll only realize his value if he leaves, which I hope doesn’t happen. And for the last 6 years we have put so much effort to develop him, and selling him now would be catastrophic. It seems that these days that the fans seem to write the player off when he leaves a club, saying that he is not a good player, injury-prone and that the club can do well without the player.

But sometimes I feel that we are too casual and seem to live in a fake world. If Arsene decides to sell Theo, I hope he is immediately replaced. Gervinho and OX are our only other wingers, along with Arshavin who might also leave. The former cannot be relied on and the latter is too young but will become a world-class player once he gains experience.

I feel that the Arsenal board must sort out this situation really quickly. It is becoming a trend that our best players are leaving – starting from Vieira, Henry, Cesc Fabregas, Nasri, RVP, Song and now possibly Theo Walcott.