Feck that for a laugh.
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Why can't we do what all the Spanish/French clubs seem to do. Make Walcott sign a long term contract, and then just sell him for more.
There's still questions to be asked about exactly when the contract offer was made, how much was offered and whether Walcott walked away from the talks etc. Of course Kroenke apologists claim they have inside info that Theo's representatives cut off negotiations, but it wouldn't surprise me if the club messed up by either not offering a contract soon enough (as they did with Song) or making Theo a derisory offer.
Arseblog has said that Theo's people cut off talks but one of the journalists on Sunday Supplement with more credible sources said there were preliminary talks about the deal early in the season, that is standard, but it took them ages to offer him a contract and schedule an official meeting between the two camps. As Theo said, the last deal took 6 months to thrash out. I just think our people are slow and purposely offered a deal late on towards the end of the transfer window. Song's camp were told to wait for contract talks after the window had closed so I think we purposely leave things late.
Couple of problems with that. Theo's wages would be less if the transfer fee was higher. Also you'd have to persuade somebody to pay silly money for him so it would limit his options to a move to City, the Chavs or Exxon Mobil. Exxon don't like strikers and Theo wouldn't get a game at City or the Chavs. Liverpool would have been ideal but they spent all their money on Stewart Downing already.