Arsenal: Theo Walcott Becoming Arsene Wenger’s Great Mirage

Arsenal speedster Theo Walcott has been left off the English National team and Arsene Wenger doesn’t get it. What he sees is not what others see.

I have spent the better part of the past two years wondering what Theo Walcott brings to Arsenal to make him cost so much and play so much. I get that he scores a lot of goals and for the record, I do value his ability to do so. He is a premium poacher and one that is useful to have.

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But even with that in mind, he has not developed into the player he was supposed to become and yet he is drawing wages like he has. He simply doesn’t have that all-around game like many others out there do and his ability to disappear is right up there with the best of the magicians in the league (I’m thinking Eden Hazard).

When Gareth Southgate left Walcott off of the English National team, even I was outraged. Simply because he scores a ton of goals and those others that got the call haven’t provided that. Plus, Walcott seems top play better for England than for the Gunners.

But when Arsene Wenger came out and made the claim that Walcott is better than ever before, I put on my best confused look and took to my keyboard.

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“He has become more of a complete player, more efficient,” he told a news conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to West Bromwich Albion,” Le Prof said, as quoted by ESPNFC.

“He has turned up in big games as well, he can score goals in big games. He showed that against Bayern, he scored the goal and I think it was a penalty on him and he can influence games.”

I just don’t get it. I don’t see how one good appearance every three or four months deserves this kind of praise. And again, I rejoice with everyone else when he has those super appearances, but then he comes out again, like he did against West Brom, and he disappears again, proving that he cannot consistently influence games.

In fact, he is far more likely to disappear and do nothing than he is to have an influence.

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It makes me think that Wenger is seeing what he thinks Walcott should be by now and not what he actually is. What he is is a solid goal poacher. And that’s well and good. But to say that he is a complete player that can influence games is so far off base that I just can’t make sense of it.