Theo Walcott: Ex-Arsenal star has never managed to fulfil his potential but did his England World Cup call-up ruin his progress?

Theo Walcott: Ex-Arsenal star has never managed to fulfil his potential but did his England World Cup call-up ruin his progress?
Everton star Theo Walcott is now 30-years-old but questions remain about his form and consistency despite bursting onto the scene aged 16.A twelve season spell at Arsenal yielded two FA Cups but he has netted just 65 Premier League goals – around 5.4 per season.9

Walcott has struggled for consistency at Everton

Currently yet to play 90 minutes in 2019 and with just three goals and two assists all season, it’s fair to say he is once again failing to deliver.Signed for around 20million, Walcott is not fulfilling expectations for someone who had joined for such a sum and it is perhaps the story of his career – plenty of potential but little end product.talkSPORT.com looks at why this situation has come about. The joke doing the rounds on social media at full-time of Evertons 3-1 loss to Wolves last month, was that the stray black cat, which had curiously made its way onto the pitch at Goodison Park, had done more running then Walcott.Ironic cheers of sign him up rang across the stadium from the home fans. In all fairness, the feline had covered considerable ground in his five minute cameo.9

A stray cat ran onto the Goodison Park pitch

Comparisons with an intrepid moggy are a reflection of the crossroads in which Walcott finds himself at once more in his career, one he has seemingly failed to make his way over time and time again.Back in 2006, then 17, Walcott had locked his phone away; he did not want any distractions as he concentrated on the theory section of his driving test.This proved to be a wise decision, as when he did eventually retrieve it, there was numerous messages, congratulating him on his inclusion by Sven Goran Eriksson in Englands squad for the World Cup in Germany. This was not a hoax.9

Walcott never made it off the bench in 2006

I was shocked and surprised as everyone was; my eyes were just popping out of my head, said Walcott at the time. My first thoughts were that I can’t believe this is true. First the move to Arsenal and then this, it is unbelievable.Most players don’t get to go to a World Cup – I’m the lucky one. Becoming England’s youngest player would be something special.Walcott did not feature once. Instead he sat on the bench, watching on like a fan who had been chosen at random. A camcorder and sun cream were used more often than his boots.“I watched back footage I had filmed, honestly it showed how young I was and how inexperienced I was and how out of place I was. I was a kid in a man’s game,” he said in a recent interview with Gary Lineker.The notorious WAG era had been ushered in. Walcott and his girlfriend had been unwittingly thrust into the limelight.In his autobiography, Steven Gerrad said, Walcott had no right to be there. The situation was absurd.9

Walcott applies sun cream in Germany

Gerrard was right. Without ever having played a game for Arsenal and only 23 senior appearances for Southampton under his belt, the expectancy was enormous.And at times, he certainly has had his moments, performances that looked like delivering on that hype and promise.The composed finish for his first Arsenal goal in the 2007 Carling Cup final, that run against Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final, where he glided effortlessly past six players before setting up Emmanuel Adebayor.9

Walcott opens the scoring in the 2007 Carling Cup final

A hat-trick in a 7-3 thrashing of Newcastle, two more in a 5-2 north London derby win over Tottenham. There have been others too.Only 14 players in Arsenals history have netted more goals for the club than Walcotts 108.But yet the pressure has remained, so too has that term; unfulfilled, it has followed him around like a bad smell.When you are cast as the next Thierry Henry, given his legendary No. 14 shirt, that patience, the understanding that time is of the essence, disappears.Following his brilliant treble for England against Croatia, Arsene Wenger, unintentionally, would do little to ease the weight of expectation.“Hes different [to Lionel Messi at that age] and I think he has more, the Arsenal boss said.9

Walcott netted a stunning hat-trick against Croatia in 2008

“If you have to look for a weakness in Messi you would say it is his ability to run without the ball, behind the defender.“When he takes the ball to his feet hes like a Ferrari. But Theo is more a guy who has the timing to run off the ball and that is something that is difficult to find.It was hyperbole at its finest and this is no slight on Walcott, he, nor will anyone, be like the Barcelona star. For some, Messi is the greatest of all time. That comparison up against the majority is wildly unfair.A World Cup debut continued to elude him. Fabio Capello rang to tell him he would not be going to South Africa in 2010. A ruptured ACL in his left knee ruled him out of a spot in Brazil four years later. It is unlikely he will add to his 47 caps.9

Walcott inherited the 14 shirt from Thierry Henry

Arsenal have history with talented, young English players arriving to much promise, only to stagnate for one reason or another. Francis Jeffers was considered the ultimate poacher when he joined from Everton. Dubbed the fox in the box by Wenger, he never came close to realising his potential, a nomadic career followed.Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, like Walcott, moved to the Gunners from Southampton. Direct and pacy, he too seemed to lose his way, never nailed down a position for any length of time at Arsenal.Henry once said of him: I’ve been watching him for a very long time and I still don’t know what he’s good at.Until a cruel knee injury ruled him out last season, Oxlade-Chamberlain had begun to show what he was good at. Progressive indeed, his move to Liverpool may have given Walcott food for thought.9

His time at Arsenal was coming to an end in 2017

In some ways it was a gradual decline, Walcott realised his time at Arsenal, 12 years after he signed, was coming to an end. To say he had found his comfort zone would not be an exaggeration, a new challenge was needed.Football at Everton under Sam Allardyce is probably not what he would have envisioned, but it at least represented a change of scenery, a fresh start.In 2006, Arsenal was essentially the best club he could have chosen. The way it was run, the calibre of players around him, a respected manager who had a football philosophy that once yielded success, soon stubbornly favouring style over substance. They had just played in the Champions League final too.9

Everton fans have grown frustrated with Walcott

However, as Arsenal began to consistently underachieve, Walcott, to some, would embody that struggle. The fact that Henry, Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and much of the ‘Invincible’ side had departed seemed to go under the radar. Fans needed a target, a focal point of their anger and they had that in Walcott. He was easy pickings, unlikely to ever complain, make a controversial statement, content with where he was.Walcott turned 30 today and once again finds himself facing the same conundrum he had at Arsenal.The same inconsistent, poor decision-making jibes are branded, criticism aplenty, only now he is no longer considered a prospect. These are his prime years, well they should be.The scars from that World Cup call-up were not apparent at the time, but its repercussions have been felt years later.

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