Why Theo signing a new deal is BIG news. And why I believe the board deserve a lot of credit for once. 

19/01/13

Yesterday we saw the image on arsenal.com, that we had been hoping to see for the best part of half a year, Theo with a pen in his hand signing da ting!! The saga that had been going on for so long that I think many had convinced themselves that he was going to be leaving either in the transfer window, or on a bosman (free) transfer in the summer. As Arsene said the other day, when negotiations take this long, it is never really a good sign, and more often than not you would expect either party to withdraw from the negotiating table completely. Fortunately, that was not the case, and we have a deal. Theo has signed a new contract, believed to be for 3 and 1/2 years, and will therefore be staying at the club. This is of course great news for us, and completes the job in terms of extending the contracts of all, our so called "British Core". 6 British players have all now signed new "long term contracts" with the club over the last month.

However undoubtably this one was the most complex of those mentioned to sort out. I think this is down to the fact that Theo is that bit older and a lot more experienced and therefore this was arguably a bigger contract for him in his career, furthermore of course there was the issue over his playing position, which seemed to take forever to be sorted. Theo always maintained that he wished to remain at Arsenal, but saw himself as a striker rather than a winger, even though we have seen big improvements in his wing play in recent seasons. In recent weeks he has been given a chance to play at CF and I think that this has given him more confidence that he will be given at least some games at striker, and therefore contract talks I think have become easier.

But now it is done we can move on, but we have to say it is such great news that this deal has been sealed. First things first Theo is a quality player, he has 30 caps for his country and is our top goalscorer this season so far with 14 goals (more than he has scored in any other season). He has been a bit inconsistent from game to game over the years, but one thing is for sure, he is unplayable when he is "on it", and what is also very pleasing for Arsenal is that he is a great finisher and is pace is effectively second to none. So for us to hold on to him is massive in my opinion. It has been well documented over the last few years how many top players we have lost in recent seasons, so it was so important to make sure that this did not happen again. And it hasn't, so that is absolutely fantastic. Theo has showed great loyalty, he has stuck to his word and has been honest and has signed the contract. This is brilliant news for Arsenal, and I cannot wait to see him continue to score goals and terrorise defenders for many more years to come, I think he still has lot more potential to fulfill which is exciting, especially as he learns to play as a CF.

I also think that whilst Theo deserves lots of credit for sticking to his pledge that he wanted to stay at Arsenal, I think the board also deserves credit for this deal. I know that the board have taken quite a lot of stick this season, which I don't think is always fair as they are not the ones on the pitch each week, but the fact is they have taken a lot of stick. I agree in part that they do need to spend more money and they do need to give Arsene more support, but I do think they have become a scapegoat whenever we don't win a game, which is not right. But regardless of this, they could easily have given up on this contract extension as it really really dragged out. But they haven't they kept trying to get people round the table, they kept making offers to Theo's representatives, stuck at it, and they have their reward, the club has re-signed him! So I do think that they deserve credit for this, because as I said they could have easily thrown the towel in and just let him go. But they realised he was a very important player, and have pulled it off.

Where they do deserve stick however, lays in the fact that they let this contract get into the situation that it did. To allow a player of Theo's quality get to the final 5 months of his contract almost, is poor management. I know that Theo was un-happy at the fact it took them so long to invite him in for negotiation  and he felt undervalued by the club because of this. So you could argue that they have got away with this one, because the player was keen to stay! However this must not be allowed to happen again. With Theo signing on for only 3 1/2 years the board's motives now should be to show to Theo ambition, get quality players in and when he gets to within 18 months of the end of this contract, get him and tie him down!! That is the key, if they do not do those things, we will be in exactly the same panic again, and could loose him, therefore might not get away with it again!

It is great news that he has signed a new deal, and I hope that he will celebrate his new deal with a fantastic performance tomorrow, whether that be up front or on the flank, and score a few goals!!

UP THE ARSENAL


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpccf8qgSt4

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