From "boo boys" to "sign da ting". The fast transformation of Theo Walcott. 

04/02/2013

It was 26th February 2012, the day of arguably the biggest fixture in the Arsenal calendar in any given season, at the Home Of Football Vs Tottenham Hotspur, The North London derby. Around 30 minutes in to the game, Arsenal were 0-2 down, at home to their bitter local rivals, meaning the time the team were sitting 12 points behind their rivals in the hunt for "Champions League" qualification. It was in a quite frankly the "disaster scenario" for Arsenal and our fans. However one player that it seemed was taking the brunt of the stick was Mr Theo James Walcott, Arsenal's number 14. He seemed to be completely out of sorts, short of ideas and completely shot of any kind of confidence or believe. The fans were really getting on his back, frustration was well and truly "in the air", and he was feeling the full force of it! It was very sad to see.

However from 1/2 time in that game to now, I do not think that Theo has looked back. This was something that I was thinking about the other day, and was just mentioned on the Fans Forum on Arsenal Player. Since that moment he has gone from the brunt of criticism, with many fans loosing patience with him and calling for him to be sold, to people begging for him to sign da ting and rejoicing when he did. This is a quite remarkable transformation really. He has been absolutely sensational this season, is currently on 18 goals and 11 assits for the season, formulating an involvement in 29 of Arsenal's 76 goals this season. A great contribution.

He has looked every inch the quality player that he is, and has oozed confidence throughout this season which has really shone through in his play. He has also started to really use his pace more effectively and more frequently. I remember in previous seasons, sat at the game just shouting for Theo to take the defender on, because he just has such pace, but this was never really forthcoming. However, in this campaign he has looked just so much more dangerous. I believe this is partly down the fact that he has played almost as a "false winger" if you like, in the sense that he plays on the wing, however comes inside much much more frequently than he has done in the past. This has meant that he has made many more runs across the defence, meaning that he has got "in behind" the opposition, with his pace, a lot lot more than he had prior to this campaign. This has meant that he is a lot more of a threat to the opposition, therefore has scored more goals, simple hey! He really has used his pace much more frequently.

It is not just his goals that have made him a key player, and a crowd favorite, at The Arsenal. But it's also down to the fact that he has also made massive improvements in terms of his delivery, his crossing, from wide areas. In the past he was one of those very frustrating players, almost like Gervinho now, who would do great, get towards the byline and then just completely fluff the cross, or elect to pass when he should have shot, or shot when he should have passed e.t.c. This was extremely frustrating for us fans to see. This led to many so called pundits to claim that Theo did not have a "football brain". However, this season all has changed. The fact that he has 11 assists shows this. His delivery or "final product" as I like to call it, has improved beyond all recognition really. The one that really sticks out for me is the cross that he made during (ironically) the game against Spurs at home this season, where he whipped in a delicious cross with his back to goal for Mertesacker to score that fantastic header to put us level. It really was a great example of how he has really improved in this area. It really is great to see this from Theo.

So when you remember the reception that Theo was getting during the game against Spurs at home last season, to lets say, the reception he got during the Newcastle demolition at The Emirates this season. Where cries of "sign him up sign him up sign him up" were ringing round for most of the second half. So in less than a year he really has gone almost from zero in some parts of our fan-base to hero almost throughout. This was clear during the "sign da ting" process until recently. He really is a key player for us, that is for sure. And to go from the performance and frustration in the first half vs Spurs last season to where he is now, he really has shown tremendous mental strength, perseverance  and belief in his own ability and quality.

Lets hope that Theo continues to develop, continues to improve for many many years to come at Arsenal. As I said on my article discussing Walcott and Bale, he still has a number of years before he reaches his "peak years" so this really is exciting!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!

@Mr_arsenal_blog - do tweet me your thoughts!!!


THEO THEO THEO THEO!! .................

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT. 

Why Theo Walcott is massively UNDER-rated and UNDER-valued by most people, especially the media. 

3/2/13

Today when watching the Tottenham Vs West Bromwich Albion match on Sky, Jamie Redknapp said that Gareth Bale was "definitely up there with Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo". Now before any Bale fans abuse me I would like to make it clear, that I am not an Arsenal fan who will deny the strengths of a rival team or their players as on the whole, I am a football fan and acknowledge "good football" and footballers. He is a fantastic player, and the Premier League as an entity is very very lucky to have players with his ability in our league. However, the amount of praise and adulation that he gets is, in my opinion, absolutely mind boggling. Would you have him above the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Falcoa, Van Persie, Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Mata even? I would say no. Would he genuinely get into, lets say the Real Madrid team (as he has been linked there)? I would say no. Would he get in the Barcelona team, no. Would he get in the Manchester United team? Well yes! But he is so overrated by so many now, that in my opinion it over shadows other GREAT players.

One such player in my opinion is Theo Walcott. Now I am not saying that Bale is worse than Theo, nor am I saying that Theo is superior, however the difference in praise that the two players receive is in proportionate in my opinion to the level of performance of the two players. As I always say "stats don't lie". And the stats say that Gareth Bale has played 28 games this season, has scored 11 goals and contributed 6 assits for his teammates. Whereas Theo has scored 18 goals, contributed 11 assists in 29 appearances for Arsenal this season and has scored 2 hat-tricks, plus has more pace than Bale. Furthermore Theo has scored 60 goals for Arsenal and Bale has scored 47 goals for Spurs, whilst both playing, on the whole, in the same position (on the flank), and finally are a similar age. Therefore my point is, what can Theo do to receive the adulation and the praise, especially from "outside" the Arsenal circles, that his performances, especially this season, deserve?

Theo Walcott has been fantastic this season, I personally have always believed that Theo will become a 20/25 goal a season player, because he has fantastic finishing ability, coupled with great pace and fantastic intelligence. However for much of his career he has been labelled "inconsistent" and it has been claimed that he has "no football brain". However in my opinion this season and in the 2nd half of last season as well he has really really stepped us his performances, and is becoming a very very good player. His pace is phenomenal, as it always has been, but what has certainly improved specifically is his "final product". By this I mean his crossing, which was highly criticized in the past, and of course also his goal "return" which as I said before stands at 18 for the season. He has also in my opinion become better at using his pace more effectively. I have been critical of this in the past, in the sense in the past he would try and run almost through a player rather than to try and show him the outside and beat him for pace, or knock it past the defender, and run on to it. Both these things he has began to do much better over the last 2 seasons. Against Liverpool on Wednesday I thought he was excellent in this area, he frequently looked to get past the defenders, and on the whole was very successful at this indeed.

Therefore I put it to you, why is it that Bale is rated SO highly by so many, to the extent that he is labelled effectively the 3rd best player in the world, when his contribution and his stats are actually lower than Theo's? But that is not really the whole point, my point really is more specific to Theo. That is that I do not believe that Theo receives the praise for his performances and his importance for Arsenal. What frustrates me is that whilst the contract negotiations were going on with Arsenal recently the media were very very quick to say "is this another important player to leave Arsenal" and oh "they can't afford to loose him", but when it comes actually to his performances they do not seem to praise him like he should be. For me he is probably one of the first names on Arsene Wenger's team sheet, whereas at the start of the year he was on the bench. Furthermore in my opinion he is an absolute shoe in for England. But this is not portrayed through the media.

Maybe this is because Theo is not as extravagant or as flash as Bale, he does not crap the headlines for diving e.t.c. like Bale does. Therefore maybe the reason for his lack of coverage and praise in the media is because he does not cause any kind of controversy and therefore is not really "talked about" outside of "Arsenal circles". Maybe this is the case, however what is obvious to me is that he is underrated across the country. The exciting thing for us Arsenal fans is that he is still on 23, and therefore is still at least 4 years away from his "prime period", if we assume that a players prime is around the age of 27/28. Therefore there is still lots to come from him, as is the case from Bale.

However one thing is clear to me, and that is that Theo will continue to create more goals, will also create more assits, but maybe they are just different kind of players. Perhaps we have to accept that. But the point here is, given the stats which I have outlined, why is the praise and media coverage between the two players so different? It seems that there is almost public worshipping of one (Bale), and a kind of luke-warm, mild, reception for the other (Theo).

Perhaps I am being to eager to compare the two, do tell me if I am, but it just seems very very odd to me that one player (with a worse return) is being almost worshipped by many so called pundits, and one is just sort of getting on with his job, doing very well scoring more goals than the other, creating more for his team-mates, and not getting the same treatment. For me this is very strange. Would I have Gareth Bale in the Arsenal team? Well yes of course because he is a great player, would I have him instead of Walcott, no not a chance. Because Theo has contributed more to our team, and is a great player and servant for Arsenal Football Club.

Do let me know your thoughts, but for now all I have to say is that I cannot wait to see Theo continue to develop over the coming years, and am so pleased that he has signed a new contract (he has signed da ting), and will continue to grace the Emirates grass at such pace, for many years to come (we hope)!!  He really is a very exciting player!!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!

Do tweet me your thoughts! @Mr_arsenal_blog