Will Theo Walcott make it at Arsenal?
Add comment January 19th, 2008
Morning all. Today is a Saturday, which is infinitely superior to a Friday. Let us make merry, at least until Sunday, when tomorrow will be Monday, and darkness will loom once more on our calendar’s horizon.
Let’s start by congratulating Emmanuel Adebayor on winning the BBC African Player of the Year Award. I’m not sure what it does for the BBC’s coverage of the forthcoming African Nations Cup, seeing as the player their viewers have just voted the best on the continent will not be taking part in the tournament, but Adebayor deserves his prize. Whilst the likes of Eto’o and Drogba are superior players, they’ve had poor years. Adebayor, meanwhile, has emerged as our most reliable striker. With Robin van Persie seeming to get more injured by the day, we ought to be delighted Manu’s not out in Ghana.
Arsene has spoken about Lassana Diarra’s impatience, and I am glad he’s spoken fairly honestly about a situation that must have really frustrated him. You can only say that if Arsene really felt Diarra was worth keeping, he would have done so.
It doesn’t look like any replacement will be arriving in January though, with Arsene ruling out a move for a couple of Russians:
“Somebody called me last night about Dimitriev and I like Arshavin but no.”
Who called? What did they want to know? I guess we’ll never know. Le Boss did, however, mention that Luke Freeman should arrive from Gillingham soon.
If he were to sign on Sunday, it’d make a fascinating parallel with Theo Walcott, as the 20th will mark two years since the day Theo joined Arsenal.
To be honest, we probably all expected more of Walcott. That’s in large part the fault of people like me, who built the expectations up incredibly high. But looking back at that blog entry from two years ago, Arsene insisted Walcott would contest for a first-team place “within weeks”, when in fact he didn’t appear in the side for eight months.
That’s a measure of the way in which Walcott’s progress has been significantly slower than expected, and the most recent quotes from Arsene sound a bit like a man protesting rather more than he ought to be.
Walcott is not in the squad for today’s game with Fulham, but will get a chance to prove his manager’s faith well-placed in the week against Spurs.
Three points today is a must. Come on Arsenal.
