Arsenal: Theo Walcott could face Olivier Giroud-like revolution

Arsenal seemed set to let Theo Walcott leave, what with their pursuit of similar players and the new formation, but he may have some tricks up his sleeve yet.

Arsenal’s longest tenured player is Theo Walcott and the guy is making almost as much money as Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, barring their new contracts, should they come. Yet Walcott is continuously in and out of the starting XI, unable to hold onto a starting role because he just doesn’t bring enough to the table.

And with the switch to the 3-4-2-1, his options are even more limited, because he sure as hell isn’t playing striker or wingback and he absolutely isn’t going to challenge Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez for a place.

So it looked unavoidable, sell the guy or he rots on the bench. Apparently West Ham were willing to offer £20m for the guy, which is a deal definitely worth exploring.

Now, however, new reports are indicating that Walcott is determined to stay and fight for a place with the first team. Adding creedance to that is the fact that he is on their preseason tour, unlike Kieran Gibbs, who is in a similar boat.

I am incredibly harsh on Walcott. Sometimes I even forget to give him the credit when it’s due. He did score 19 goals last year. So naturally, I had expected to be a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be sold to clear out space for someone else. But then I got to thinking… A bit of competition never hurt anyone. In fact, you could almost say a bit of competition never didn’t help.

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Remember Olivier Giroud? Of course you do. He and Walcott were in a similar situation where neither was being properly competed with for far too long and they got complacent. When Giroud finally faced competition from Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck, he had his most productive season ever. Even with limited playing time.

He had a personal revolution you could say, and came out the other end looking brilliant. So much so that I am almost just as excited to see his reaction to Alexandre Lacazette as I am to see Lacazette in general.

Why can’t Theo Walcott do the same? This determination to fight for his place is encouraging. He won’t get worse, that’s for sure. It will not be an easy road, but when I stop and think about the rare times when I am truly impressed with Walcott, I get excited.

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What if that Walcott is the one that comes out the other end of this? If that becomes the situation, then we are in for a treat.

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