TalkSport pundit claims £20m player Arsenal sold in 2018 was ‘never coached properly’ by Wenger

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Tony Cascarino told TalkSport (07/11/20 at 6:40 am) that Theo Walcott was ‘never coached properly’ at Arsenal and under Arsene Wenger.

In 2018, after over a decade of service to the Gunners, Walcott parted ways with the club and made a £20 million switch to Everton [BBC Sport].

Walcott is still on Everton’s books, but he has since gone on loan to his boyhood club and where it all started in Southampton.

When the English speedster helped the Saints briefly move to the top of the table on Friday night, Cascarino shared that his thoughts on how Walcott has been coached during his career.

“I have always been a fan on Walcott,” said Cascarino. “But I have always felt he has never been coached properly because he was such a young player who left Southampton to go to Arsenal. He joined a fantastic squad of players at Arsenal.

“He sort of found his way. At moments he had one season he had 20 plus goals and it looked like he wanted to play a centre-forward role instead of being a wide player.

“Honestly, I think he’s one player who hasn’t been coached enough about numerous positions to play in and progression in a player because Theo’s got everything. He’s technically good and he has got incredible speed. I think if you worked with Theo about the tactical side and I think he’s an intelligent young man.

“I think one of the biggest things that happened at Arsenal with Wenger was Theo. I didn’t think Theo was a player that should have improved like he should have.”

One of the issues that faced Walcott when he joined Arsenal as a teenager is that a lot was expected of him before he could score a goal in the Premier League.

It seems as though many expected him to match what his fellow Southampton academy product Gareth Bale produced during his career in regards to it being full of league titles and European Cups.

But that shouldn’t hide away from the FA Cups he won with the Gunners and the successful spells he had.

Added with that, he ended up joining Arsenal as they were on the road to one of the worst periods of their history, which didn’t help his cause, nor was he at fault.