Friday, 22 February 08, 10:49 AM
Let me first start of by saying, I feel sorry for Theo Walcott. Honestly I do. Put yourself in his shoes. He's 18 years old, playing for one of the best clubs in the world, yet the fans are
saying he is rubbish and we should get rid of him, I have to say I disagree with Arsenal fans negative opinions of Theo Walcott. He is only 18 years old, 19 in March and your already writing him
off before his footballing career has even stated. I consider these people to be armchair fans, who have never been to a game in their lives and in the words of Edmund Blackadder, 'the
intelligence of a daffodil and the sexual sophistication of a Donkey'. They seem to think that every teenage player that comes to Arsenal must immideatly be as good as Fabregas and I think the
unneeded publicity from the English media, not for the first time hasn't helped. Granted his form hasn't been brilliant this season, but when you look at the bigger picture and you begin to
realise why. Firstly, Right Wing is not his favored position. He is a striker who plays on the shoulder of the last defender, much like Henry. He is not used to taking players on one-on-one so is
a new skill he is having to learn. Secondly he hasn't had a sustained run in the team. It has been the odd appearance here, another appearance there, never consistently playing week in week out.
The difference between our younger players in the past like Vieira and Fabregas is that they played regularly, so developed better and look how they have turned out. Now Wenger has come out and
said he plans to play Theo as Striker rather than a winger. If this is true then that begs the question of who will replace him on the wing? The current obvious one is Manu Eboue, however he is
in my opinion definitely not a winger. He isn't a right back either as his positional sense is pretty poor, compared to the find of the season in Bacary Sagna. Yes he is quick and can run at
players, but currently there is no end product to his game and that is not something we want. So who else is there? I personally think that we should promote one or two of the reserve team
players. My personal favorite is Kieran Gibbs. Although he is now on loan at Norwich, he is a left winger and those of you who watched the Emirates Cup game against Inter Milan would have seen
him and he was superb running at defenders and set up a couple of pot shots at goal. He also filled in a left back in the Carling Cup game against Sheffield United and did well. He's proven he
can do it so why not give him a try? Also we have Fran Merida, now on loan at Real Sociadad who also can play at left midfield. Now they are on loan for the rest of the season I think we will
have to wait till next season before we see them in the first team proper. However next season we will have the use of highly talented Carlos Vela who has played out wide for Osasuna this season
and caused Sergio Ramos no end of problems. If Rosicky continues to be injured next season then he could turn out to be our Reyes replacement, though hopefully he won't be as allergic to the bad
weather as Reyes was as currently, that is what this Arsenal team lacks because he has never been formerly replaced. You may have noticed that all these three are left footed/left sided players
where as we require a right winger.We do have Henri Lansbury, as well as Jay Simpson, who can play on the right but I don't believe they are quite ready for first team football yet. Something
tells me we will buy someone in, possibly a Queresma-type player over the summer but even if we don't Rosicky if fit could play there and Wenger I believe will still stick with Eboue so you must
admit, things do look bright for next season.