Long term, I don’t know what Theo Walcott can do.
Nobody does.
Sven’s decision to take him in 2006 was ridiculous.
I blame Wenger for that. Going to that World Cup and not playing set him back.
And I think Fabio’s decision to leave him out of South Africa was the right call.
As it turned out, England were so bad that even an on-form Theo Walcott would not have made any difference.
Today, with Arsenal playing in the Ukraine, we read that Wenger says Theo can be Arsenal’s main striker.
That rings a bell with me because in the past three weeks I’ve been watching Walcott and thinking: he reminds of Gary Lineker.
The breakaway goals Walcott has been scoring remind me of Lineker’s first half goal for Everton in the FA Cup Final againt Liverpool, remind me of Lineker’s goal against Holland when he raced onto a 60-yard ball from right back Gary Stevens. He got to that ball before the outrushing goalie. I think the keeper was Hans Van Breukelen…. but don’t quote me on that.
Let me tell you something you may not know : Lineker was a smart, self-made striker, a late developer who wasn’t good enough to play for England Under 21s.
Most of his England teammates were capped by England Under 21s : Des Walker got 7 Under 21 caps, Mark Hateley got 10. Others included Trevor Steven (2), Mark Wright (4) and Peter Reid (6).
It’s all about how you train on, how you focus, how you develop, how much you want it. A lot of footballers who have big careers are very,very ambitious and know how to look after No1. And they sometimes have to do a specialised job for the team.
Ray Wilkins only got one Under 21 cap but 84 senior caps.
Bryan Robson got seven and 90.
Paul Gascoigne got 13 and 57.
Peter Beardsley got 0 and 59.
Gary Lineker got 0 and 80 and 48 goals.
Theo Walcott is 21 and could aim for 80 caps. If he proves his critics wrong, good luck to him. If he proves me wrong, I won’t mind.
ANR reply of the day from Mickey :
Some of your examples were a bit misleading.
Beardsley was already 21 before he left Carlisle for Newcastle – Carlisle players don’t win many U21 caps.
Lineker was at Leicester till he was 24, and had just one top division season before he was 23 (they went straight down).
Gazza got 57 full caps and would have had 100 if he had his head sorted out. So the 13 U21 caps the mixed-up kid got was actually a lot.And best of all –
Ray Wilkins got just one U21 cap aged 20 in 1976 because the U21 side only started in 1976.
That was also the point he became a regular full squad member. Since he had captained Chelsea from the age of 18 and I’m pretty sure had captained all the younger England age group teams, I think we can say he’d have had a lot more U21 caps otherwise.