Arsène Wenger insisted yesterday that he is still confident of tying Theo Walcott to a new contract at Arsenal, but also insisted that the club wage structure would not bend for him.
“Theo is 23,” said Wenger. “He’s English, he lives 10 minutes from here. So hopefully we can find an agreement at some stage.”
Arsenal are never keen to over-pay players and Wenger made clear that this was the root of the issue.
“It was never a hard-line approach, always a soft-line approach, but with respect of our wage structure,” he said. “Every decision we have a general line of conduct that is our wage structure that we want to respect. If we don’t do that we will go nowhere. It is of course different for a 29-year-old than a 23-year-old.”
While talks continue this season, Walcott will stay at Arsenal, and Wenger has few worries about his focus.
“I don’t know what will happen in January,” the manager said. “I’m more worried about Sunday [when Arsenal face Liverpool at Anfield]. And Theo is focused in every training [session] to do well. And what happens at the end of the season happens at the end of the season.”
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Let him stay if he wants to be come regular
at international level. If he loves his career let
him stay
Wenger is keeping us in suspense, this is crazy. Buy players please others are doing it why can’t we .. We gonna regret it if you don’t
fuck wenger sell him take the money put into our pocket and than sell the player have high price and buy young player to feed them and then sell ok it is policy …
I hate wenger & d board! I love arsenal, I hope in few years time we’ll get d right people in d board and a better manager! But for now I just have to stick with this dictatorship government in arsenal
Give him a heavily incentive-based contract. 10K more than what he’s on now and make the rest contingent on goals and assists. That way if he wants to earn 100K/week then he can REALLY “earn” the 100K/week by putting up the stats as the team needs.
If he scores from a striker position, bonus. If he scores from the wing position, bonus. If he assists from the wing position, incentive pay. Get stats and help the team get the necessary results and you get the pay you feel you’re worth.
If not, sell him BUT reinvest the money is a QUALITY player. Don’t keep it and sell us all nonsense about their not being anyone for us to buy. City are loaded with quality yet they find a way to bring in additional reinforcements while we’re to believe there are no good alternatives that would/can play ahead of Diaby, Frimpong, Coquelin, Arshavin, Jenkinson, Djourou, Chamakh, and the like.
I love our players but I’m not arrogant enough to believe there aren’t better or more experienced players out there who can help the squad and add more necessary depth.