Arsenal FC Manager, Arsene Wenger has expressed his disappointment in Theo Walcott.
The Frenchman says the forward is not living up to expectations at the club. He says he still believes the Englishman will prove himself. Wenger has been under pressure to sell the player this summer and look for more prolific attacking option upfront.
Arsenal are in third place in the English premier League. They have lost out in other competitions this season. Barcelona knocked them out in the UEFA Champions League recently. They are out of the FA cup and Manchester City has lifted the League cup already.
When asked to comment on Walcott’s performance this season, Wenger said: “Not as well as you could have expected. He has had good periods in the season.”
He added: “I think recently he has gone through a much more difficult period. But he will come back. He works very hard; he puts the effort in training. At the moment, for him and Giroud it’s a bit more difficult, but that’s part of the competition.”
The petite but pacy winger marks a decade since arriving at the London-based outfit. He joined from Southampton as a 16-year-old rising star. The Gunners star is the longest serving player in the team. In the attack, he has fallen behind Danny Welbeck, Olivier Giroud and quite recently, rising sensation Alex Iwobi.
Despite starting the season as the first-choice centre-forward, Walcott has been sitting on the bench more of late. He is even in danger of being left out of the English Euro 2016 squad due to the numerous striking options Coach Roy Hodgson has. Hodgson has stated clearly that the striker would need to get a starting shirt to be considered for the regional tournament.
Wenger summarize the problem with the player when he said: “The problem with Theo is he wants to play on the right and through the middle. You have to fix yourself somewhere. When he does go through the middle he thinks maybe it’s better for me on the right. It’s true that I fixed him more through the middle, because of the quality of his runs and the intelligence of his runs. And he has improved his finishing a lot, so he can be a player through the middle. On the flanks today you have to work very hard defensively.”