What now for Walcott?

[Power n Glory]

As usual, some people are mixing up whether Theo has done anything 'wrong' with whether he is entitled to seek a better pay deal. The player is entitled to do what he wants.

I don't see a massive anti Theo sentiment, but what I think people are a bit frustrated about is his failure to sign a new contract with us (and the fact that it is his representatives who have walked out of talks) when the stance that he appears to have adopted is out of kilter with his consistency. It is easy to forget that he played in the first match at the Emirates in 2006, having been signed for a fortune for his age. The general feeling is that he hasn't quite realised his potential -hence the antipathy with him seeming to be a bit of an 'RVP lite' in his approach to re-signing with us.

Where are we getting this information about Theo's people walking out of contract talks? From what one of the journalists said on Sunday Supplement, there were preliminary talks with his people, which is the standard opening point and then it took ages for Arsenal to get back to his people and offer him a contract. All summer we had this talk about RVP but nothing on Walcott until late August. A bit crafty to offer a deal so late on and it's a bit of a strong arm move.

Considering what Song's agent said about how his contract was handled, how long it took for Theo's last deal, Nasri's, Flamini's and that unforgettable moment with Bergkamp, I'm guessing our contract people have been slow again. Theo said way back last October that he wanted to discuss a new deal so why wasn't it sorted back then?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

How could the contract be sorted? It can't be about money, Theo said so. Assuming that is actually true then it must be him wanting something about being played as a striker in there. If Wenger can't guarantee how often he will play there and he had something in his mind about letting Gervinho play in that role then it wouldn't have mattered had it been initiated a long time ago, it would've stalled from one side or the other.

[Power n Glory]

Even if it's not about money, Wenger could have tried playing Walcott up front in a few cup games from last season or during the pre season if playing as a striker was part of the deal. Regardless, talks should have started a lot earlier.

[Joker]

The only person I've seen mention Walcott and his people walk out of contract talks is Arseblog, and he's such a bootlicker for the board these days that it's difficult to believe anything he says. He's probably being drip fed info from an insider who's delivering the "official" party line to him, the same with Song's apparent bad behaviour.

And all in all, I think Wenger was too obsessed with thinking he could do to Walcott what he did to Henry. Just because it worked with Thierry doesn't mean the same process would work with other players. That's the problem with Wenger, he's become a bit of a one trick pony and at least until recently was stuck in a mindset whereby he would do things that worked in the past, but have failed to deliver the payoff these days. He's played players like Denilson, Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela, Diaby and of course Walcott all out of position because he's been trying to recreate some form of "total football" where players are adaptable and can play in multiple positions if the need arises. However, rather than making these players into better footballers, all that happened was that our team performance suffered due to having square pegs in round holes, and the aforementioned players didn't really develop the skills that Wenger wanted them to develop.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

He could have but that's not going to give Theo assurances he will be played there indefinitely. If we're right to assume that's what he wants in the contract then he wants it in writing how he will be played there, not verbally. I'd hope that isn't the case because that's really a silly road for Theo to go down.

[Kano]

Talks should have started a long long time ago to give us more room to manoeuvre. set a deadline for discussions to be resolved and if no agreement is reached by then you shift him on. how we keep getting into these situations is anyone's guess.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I don't really care in this instance quite honestly, Wenger shouldn't be tied down on selecting players where he feels best for the team because a piece of paper says so.

[Kano]

i agree with that but the ongoing issue of how we handle contracts and the hassle that comes along with that really has to be addressed. this sort of mess can't keep dragging on season on season.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

You find out what the players truly want this way.

To be honest, I don't think the contract situations are that important (to me) and I say that because it is only in the last year players have gone down to the end of their contracts but before that we were still selling players with regularity. This cycle will continue whether players are under contract or not until we finally win or challenge hardily for one of the big two trophies, possibly an FA Cup but I would say that's at least doubtful to satiate players.

[Power n Glory]

The only person I've seen mention Walcott and his people walk out of contract talks is Arseblog, and he's such a bootlicker for the board these days that it's difficult to believe anything he says. He's probably being drip fed info from an insider who's delivering the "official" party line to him, the same with Song's apparent bad behaviour.

And all in all, I think Wenger was too obsessed with thinking he could do to Walcott what he did to Henry. Just because it worked with Thierry doesn't mean the same process would work with other players. That's the problem with Wenger, he's become a bit of a one trick pony and at least until recently was stuck in a mindset whereby he would do things that worked in the past, but have failed to deliver the payoff these days. He's played players like Denilson, Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela, Diaby and of course Walcott all out of position because he's been trying to recreate some form of "total football" where players are adaptable and can play in multiple positions if the need arises. However, rather than making these players into better footballers, all that happened was that our team performance suffered due to having square pegs in round holes, and the aforementioned players didn't really develop the skills that Wenger wanted them to develop.

Talks should have started a long long time ago to give us more room to manoeuvre. set a deadline for discussions to be resolved and if no agreement is reached by then you shift him on. how we keep getting into these situations is anyone's guess.

That's my guess too and it keeps on getting repeated along with the money demands.

@Terry – I agree. It's no good setting a deadline for this January.