Walcott for Arsenal exit?

Arsenal fans have seen star players leave the Emirates over recent seasons, so is Theo Walcott about to depart or will Arsene Wenger go all out to keep his hat-trick hero? Ralph Ellis reports.

 

Theo Walcott wants to stay at Arsenal and the Gunners want to keep him. It all sounds so simple, doesn't it?

 

Walcott wants to play as a centre-forward. He's had his chance and now scored four goals in three games, including Saturday's spectacular hat-trick against Newcastle. So that should be another box ticked off in the contract negotiations, shouldn't it?

 

And yet you couldn't blame Arsenal fans this morning for feeling that they've seen and heard all this before - with Ashley Cole, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, and Gael Clichy, and most recently with Robin van Persie. Funny how a succession of players who profess to love being at The Emirates seem to end up moving somewhere else.

 

The talk this morning is that Walcott's advisors are due for another round or two of serious discussions with the Gunners' hierarchy at the start of the New Year to try to settle a deal, and Arsenal sources say they are growing increasingly confident of getting it done.

 

But the logical question is that if everybody is so keen to sort it out, why hasn't it happened already? Why didn't Walcott put pen to paper at the same time as Jack Wilshere and four of the club's other bright young homegrown talents?

 

The big fear for the Gunners must be that, in giving Walcott his chance to prove he should play in a central striking role, they have only alerted other big clubs to the quality of his talent there. Walcott's hat-trick took him to just eight Premier League goals for the season, not enough at the moment to make him even a remote contender for the Golden Boot. Arsenal fans won't need reminding that a certain RVP is leading the way for that one and still looks a steal at odds against - currently 2.7 - in the betting.

 

But when you look at Theo's minutes on the pitch in a season where Arsene Wenger has perversely tried to persuade him to sign a new contract by leaving him on the bench for much of the time, the figures take on a new light. Those eight goals have come in the equivalent of just over nine games.

That sort of scoring ratio, alongside the quality of some of his finishing, must surely have attracted attention at Manchester City where they are losing patience with Mario Balotelli, and must be weighing up the options of how to freshen the squad to try to close the gap at the top of the Premier League.

 

Chelsea are about to add Newcastle's Demba Ba to their options, and after missing out on Van Persie in the summer City know they can't afford to stand still. A cut price deal for Walcott, a player with only six months left on his current contract at The Emirates, looks more and more appealing with each goal he scores.

 

It all provides reason to keep a close watch on the Transfer Special markets at the start of the January window. Walcott to Stay is one of them, and the 'no' option is currently anywhere up to a lay of 10.0. It all sounds so simple that he should be staying - but the track record of other players at Arsenal tells you there could be some twists to come.

 

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