Reports have started to re-emerge that Manchester City are considering a move for Theo Walcott this January. It would be a terrible deal for the player.
If Theo Walcott is thinking about moving to Manchester City then he needs to be the breaks on quickly before he ends up in the ditch alongside other young and talented prospects who have joined the club. He just has to look at Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell as two recent examples.
Both players have recently joined City in deals considered to be good for the future of the club. Rodwell has been injured but his only impacts were coming from the subs bench and Sinclair is struggling to even make a match day squad.
Walcott is a slightly higher calibre signing but considering his recent moaning about wanting to play as a striker for Arsenal, a move to City would seem highly illogical. He is never going to get in the team as a striker before Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko or Mario Balotelli.
If he does sign for City then Roberto Mancini will use him in exactly the same way as Arsene Wenger with the only difference being his higher salary. City will still stick him out on the right wing and use him to attack vulnerable full backs before cutting the ball back across for a striker or before he cuts back inside for a shot.
You would also have to question the move from City’s point of view because they would be signing a player who has turned down a bigger contract from Arsenal, likely to be a similar level contract that City would offer. Are they going to pay Walcott just over £100,000 per week just to sit on the bench? It’s not very likely.
There is also the question of whether they even need him because City are at their best when they are pinging the ball around in the central areas. It’s difficult to think of the last out and out winger at the club who made an impact in a Mancini designed team. The full backs get forward and provide the width which allows David Silva and Yaya Toure to be more effective from central areas.
Walcott may see it as a higher profile move, a better chance of winning silverware, both of which may be true. However, he cannot fool himself into thinking he is going to get what he wants at City because it could be even harder for him to have the impact that he currently desires at Arsenal.
It’s very difficult to see how he wouldn’t become the next high profile Manchester City signing, all smiles to the cameras on transfer day and then all frowns when he gets routinely left out for higher quality and more consistent attacking players of which there are plenty at the Etihad already.
image: © Ronnie Macdonald
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