Theo Walcott has been told he can leave Arsenal in January, with a couple of Premier League clubs reportedly keen on his signature.

According to the Express, West Ham and Southampton are both up for a move for Walcott in the winter window, and Arsène Wenger plans to sell the winger to raise funds.

The financial pressures on Arsenal as a result of the extremely large squad have been widely reported, so the Gunners do need to offload a couple of players in the next window or two.

As things currently stand, Walcott would make a good candidate for a sale. He’s only started one Premier League match since Arsenal lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace back in April last season.

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Theo Walcott could be leaving Arsenal in January.

After the game, Walcott told the media that Palace “wanted it more”, a comment that Wenger publicly stated was “not acceptable”. Since then, the  has really struggled to get back in contention in the league, only receiving 46 minutes so far this season.

In fact, things have been even worse over the last month. The 28-year-old fell ill over the international break, and missed matches against Spurs and Burnley as a result.

Then was also excluded from the squad against Huddersfield and Manchester United, despite being back in training with the team. If Wenger won’t even consider him for the squad, things are really starting to look bleak for his Arsenal future.

We’ll see whether the England man gets back in the team against BATE Borisov on Thursday. There are plenty of games this month for him to get some opportunities, but Wenger seems to be putting his faith in other options.