Walcott may still struggle for a centre-forward role next year

The problem with Walcott is that he is consistent in patches, words he himself said about his own game, now how can a player who can be anonymous at time expect to be given the starting centre forward role?

It seems Arsenal are in the market for Gonzalo Higuain from Real Madrid after it was concluded he shall be leaving the Bernabeu during the off season. As an Arsenal fan, I’d much prefer Higuain who has 107 goals in about 190 games for Real Madrid, which I never realised until I started to look up more about him when researching for this piece. I was absolutely shocked when I saw his goal to appearance tally, obviously I knew he was good because I’m not a moron but I didn’t think he was that prolific, especially when in my head it always seems Karim Benzema is the spear head of the four attacking players of Madrid.

So in my head it seems fitting to offer him £90,000-a-week instead of chucking it at Walcott who came across as holding the club to ransom when negotiating his new deal. I know what striker I would prefer, but ideally I would like to keep Walcott as a wide player as well and used as a centre forward when needed.

I think Walcott’s goal scoring stats last season were a little bit deceptive and seemed to be a bit of a flat-track bully and would seem to score when Arsenal dominated teams then would fizzle out for a while. Admittedly he did score some vital goals, like the winner after twenty seconds against QPR where Arsenal needed three points to keep the fight alive for fourth spot. He did score against Manchester United nearer the end of the season and against Liverpool and Chelsea, games which Arsenal were playing poor in the first half (not the United game, Arsenal flew out the traps) and fought back in the second half.

It is infuriating watching Walcott at certain points, sometimes he just doesn’t seem interested when playing as a striker, he seems to just languish on the shoulder of the last man and I don’t think he has the knack to do it consistently well, he does get caught offside easily. A decent defender will be able deal with the pace of Walcott down the middle all day and not break a sweat but against let’s say Reading, a team which he scored a hat-trick against in the League Cup, he can cause problems as the centre backs aren’t of the quality of your Chelsea’s or United’s.

I’m not sure if it’s the general consensus of Arsenal fans about Walcott but he seems to think he is bigger than the club and If he doesn’t get his desired role within the next year or two, will it be another media turmoil of “sign da ting” and constant press attention on Arsenal and Walcott. I can’t see Wenger dealing with it by throwing a new contract at him again, especially if we sign either Jovetic or Higuain, more than likely the latter of the two to join Arsenal and prove effective like I’m sure either of them would at Arsenal and the Premier League.