Arsenal: Wenger Setting World On Fire With Walcott Comments

Arsenal needs a striker, but that should come as no great shock. What should come as a horrid shock is Wenger’s new insistence that Walcott is a striker.

I feel pretty confident saying that Wenger has followed up the second to last thing people want to hear with the last thing people wanted to hear. With Arsenal set to begin the season in a mere week, Wenger first said that money is never a problem in the transfer market for Arsenal. That was the second to last thing I mentioned.

What was the last thing? This:

“I believe [Walcott] has all the ingredients to become a great striker,” Le Prof actually said, via Arsenal’s official site. Yes, he really said that. And he had more to say too.

“He has the quality of the runs, he is a very intelligent player and he’s a good finisher. He’s not a great defender, so I believe to use his runs in the final third could be very efficient,” And he’s not done yet.

“Scoring goals and playing there will give confidence and slowly convince him, maybe, he can be absolutely fantastic there.”

No wait, that’s not it. Wenger concluded with this: “For me in my head I will use him more up front.”

Those of you that read me frequently know that there are few things that will make me actually angry, but Theo Walcott is one of them. I understand that he deserves something for his loyalty to Arsenal, but how much of that loyalty is derived because he is making a ton of money here and being given chances that he simply wouldn’t get anywhere else?

So is it really loyalty at all?

Whatever the case, these statements are absolutely infuriating. Mainly because we all know what this means – we have not seen the last of Walcott at striker. One failed (heavily, horribly failed) year was apparently not enough. We have to deal with him for even longer.

What makes this even more amazing is that Walcott himself said that he wants to move back to the wing and make his name there. Why? Probably because he realized his own ineffectiveness and realized that he was actually much better at everything from out wide than he was up front. For the record though, I really respect Walcott for this decision and I think it does show his loyalty to the club.

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Still though, how does this work? Walcott has given up on his dream of becoming an Arsenal striker, but is going to be forced to hold onto it because Wenger still wants it to happen.

How backwards is this for Arsenal?

To make things even more interesting (is that even possible?), Wenger noted that he was ‘shocked’ that his quick English forward no longer wanted to be a striker. Why would that be shocking?

I always knew that Wenger had a stubborn side where he refused to give up on guys, but this is much different. Wenger won’t give up on playing a guy at a position when that guy has already given up. Does Wenger want to prove himself right so much that he will go against the wishes of his players to do so?

I don’t understand what Wenger is going for with this, nor can I fathom what will come of it. The only thing that gives me any hope at all is the undeniable fact that Granit Xhaka is a long ball master so maybe, just maybe, he can ping his long balls in so accurately that he can give Walcott a straight line to the goal.

But really though, why is this happening? Why won’t Wenger just let it go? When I first read the quotes from a secondary source, I thought that the only explanation was that Wenger was simply stating his belief that Walcott could still be a striker.

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When I checked the primary source and saw that he was still going to play him up front for Arsenal, my worst fears had been realized. Not even Walcott can remove Walcott from being a striker. We’re doomed.

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