You can give him the benefit of the doubt but i can't be bothered. Wright, Owen, Defoe...play them on the flanks and they're not all of a sudden going to develop fantastic dribbling and crossing skills. To argue otherwise is foolish and to say their class should shine through regardless is retarded. In what way will it shine through? Theo can't dribble but has a knack for scoring goals. He gets better numbers than a lot of his peers. That's how his talent shines through. It's not gonna coming from dribbling because he's not that sort of player. Why is this so hard to comprehend? It's like I'd you switch a centre back to playing as a wing back, he's not going to excel at the attacking side, but he shoul be decent enough to stay back, defend and mark.
I'm struggling to believe there are no consistent wingers in football. I concede I can't name any but that's mostly because I don't really follow football these days, I pretty much never watch non-Arsenal games.
The thing about Walcott is he can be very effective but he can be completely frustrating and anonymous too. And while I accept no player can shine every game, Walcott is poor too often for my liking.
The Spurs game you mention above is Walcott in a nutshell. First half he was just awful (you saying it was a 'couple of minutes' is WUMming and you know it, he was embarrassing and should have been hauled off). Second half he goes and scores 2 goals. Even then one of them he messed up his first touch but recovered well to dink it over the 'keeper.
IMO Ox is already a more complete player than Walcott. Walcott has the potential to be absolutely brilliant but he has to get consistent and he's at the age where he should be getting there.
I think cos Theo doesn't the qualities required to be Wenger's striker. Podolski has pace, technique and power. Giroud has strength, technique, and can hold the ball. Gerv fast, solid dribbler and can take on players. All the guys has more than one strength to enable them to play as CF. Can Theo take on two CBs with his pace? or dribble between FB and CB? can he bring others into play or hold up the ball. That is the bigger question.. Hell Diaby, Arshavin and Baptista have all play as CF before but you can see most of them has more than 2-3 skill set in their bags to play as CF (at least at Arsenal, also it didn't make them a better striker either) but sadly Theo only has his pace, that is the problem.
Football has evolved so much, you will find traditional striker ala Wrighty will never play for big team (look at Defoe and Bent), Theo is the same IMO.
I believe he will be good but he will never be good enough, not because he has bad attitude but he lacks the qualities required to make a good striker (at least at Arsenal).
somebody put something in my milk