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There you go he has got a month to get it sorted.Quote:
FOOTBALL
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger reiterates his desire for Theo Walcott to sign a new long-term deal at the Emirates. The north London club is tweeting from the Frenchman's pre-Manchester United media conference: "Wenger on Walcott: 'I want it resolved by Christmas. His right position is through the middle in the future'."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/20164428
This is just Wenget / Board getting their excuses in early.
Theo has been advised badly, and has stated that the stumbling block is his position. Ultimately, it will lead to him being lynched by the fans, as we have just won the politics on this one.
The "striker" argument is now redundant, and the only thing left is money. And money is what will see him leave. i) Because he'll get paid more elsewhere and ii) Because we'll want the transfer fee.
All in all. We're the ones getting mugged again. Not Theo. Not Wenget. Not Arsenal.
The fans.
It's up to the club to get a hold of his reps and thrash out a deal. So far, I've heard we haven't even scheduled new talks with his people or even improved our offer. This goes beyond the point of talking about Theo's value to the club, it's more about the way we do business. When you add up all the past cases, you really have wonder about the people we have in charge conducting these negotiations. Seems like we have too many Machiavelli / Sun Tzu readers running the show, attempting to adopt a strong stance that's costing us dearly.
As said before, why has it taken so long to offer Theo a contract? They did the same with his last deal and it rubbed him the wrong way and he warned them that they shouldn't assume that he's just going to sign it. They've done it again and now look. This 'make an offer at the last minute' strategy is something we often try in the transfer window as well. It blows up in our face in most cases. It's also worth people remembering the way the club treated Bergkamp in his final years. That 1 year contract policy for 30+ players is Wenger's idea but seeing the sort of situation it left Bergkamp in, it shows a total lack of respect for him as a player and his service to the club. I'm not comparing Theo to Bergkamp before anyone jumps the gun, as some folks like to do, just asking people to question the way the club conduct these contract talks. There are plenty of other examples.
I'm glad Wenget has spoken publically and put a deadline on it.
Fairly obvious he'll be sold in January if it's not sorted.
theo's in no fucking position to warn anyone about anything. liverpool is his only other option, which is not an option at all really if he is serious about at least staying within some sort of touching distance of the top of the game.
the 30+ thing runs at man utd and chelsea too, so we are not alone with that model.
the club are ****s and the way it is run now is a shambles. theo needs to stop fucking around and sign up because the only thing that contract will ensure is that we get a decent sell on fee for when he does leave - if he performs amazingly well any club interested in buying him in a year or two will happily pay through the nose, so he won't be trapped. the best footballers never are, they always find a way out.
Like it or not, Theo is in the stronger position. That's a fact and he doesn't have to simply accept anything. Where he goes after us isn't our problem. He could flop wherever he goes next but the still won't change the fact that we've lost an effective player and it's most likely to happen again because the club handles things badly. The 30+ model maybe at United but they have managed to keep a hold of their long servicing players and value their contribution.Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry Tuffnutz
I think thats right. Are we to assume then that Theo doesn't fancy his ability? Maybe he believes his stock won't be higher - it's easier to make people believe you're a goal-a-game striker than actually become one. At the moment, any club can pick him up on a low transfer fee (and therefore pay very high wages because Theo has shown enough promise recently to suggest he can do it). There are no guarantees that in 2 years time he will have made the sort of impact people are predicting now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry Tuffnutz
It's true that the top players can always find a way out but what if Theo doesn't think he'll be a top player? In that case, moving now is his best move.
well if he doesn't then he never will become one and we would've got off lightly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Syn
keown makes a good point
he seems to be responding to that and rather than asking him to do that sort of scrapy play on the pitch (tracking back, fighting for the ball etc) he is being forced to show his fighting spirit on AND off the pitch, which could be the making of him.Quote:
His move to Arsenal and international debut were handed to him, really, but now he has to fight for a place and the new contract he wants. That might be a masterstroke by Arsene Wenger.
if he goes to liverpool then good riddance, he clearly does not rate himself that highly and prefers the easy option.
Not really no, No other club will pay him the wages he wants. He'd also want to play in the CL, can't see A Utd, Chelsea Or City buying him they don't need him and theclub know that. End of the day only Pool could be the only "top club" he could go to and they won't pay him more then 70K.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Not Club or player have the advantage over the other right now. End of the day the manager says he wants to keep him but the board are not too bothered. Mybe he needs to get better advisors tbh. Cause unless he goes abroad he won't do much better then us.
Chelsea would take him. They need forwards and the Old Boys there will groom him to be one of their own.