Arsene Wenger has been bigging up Theo Walcott, claiming the Arsenal man ‘has quality’ and could captain England.

Arsene Wenger has been signing the praises of Theo Walcott, an Arsenal player who comes in for excessive criticism more often than not. Seen by many as a player who has failed to fulfil his potential, Helen already looked at this issue in her column this week. It was almost as if she knew Arsene would be talking about Theo in the press today.

“Walcott has the quality, if you look at his career, he can respond to disappointment with good focus,” the Frenchman said.

“He had a very bad injury and he came back. When you look at his career in 2006 he was in the World Cup and since he has not been – and we are in 2017 now.

“That is basically 11 years later and he has gone through very early high up and he is still there. That means these guys can deal with disappointment.

“He is a guy who cares and wants to do well, he has a huge level of focus. I looked at his numbers the other day, he has played wide since the start of the season and he has played 20 games and scored 10 goals in the Premier League.

arsene wenger theo walcott captain
Captain Theo (IAN KINGTON/AFP/Getty Images)

 

“I was surprised (Walcott was dropped). But it is true for England now there is competition. Going forward, you have a young generation with (Jesse) Lingard, (Marcus) Rashford coming up. (Jack) Wilshere was left out, Walcott was left out and they are usually people who are always in there.

“He is quite a focused, determined guy. He doesn’t compromise with what he thinks is important. He speaks his mind,” he continued.

Wenger added: “I think if you can captain a club team you can captain the national team, it’s similar…he is a positive guy.”

It is worth noting that Arsene Wenger actually puts very little stock in the role of captaincy, preferring 11 people prepared to lead a side rather than one designated leader.