Большое интервью Тео, о выборе номера, Тити, о его травме плеча и прочем:
Theo Walcott could have lied. He could have sat there and agreed that the decision to wear Thierry Henry’s old shirt this season revealed a remarkable amount of self- confidence. And he could have nodded, knowingly, when I suggested that he
possessed balls of steel.
But first came the smile and then the confession. ‘That’s not exactly how it happened,’ he says.
After spending two years in the No 32 shirt he was given when he joined Arsenal from Southampton, Walcott did approach those in charge of such matters at the Emirates last summer and ask for a lower number. A number that made him feel like a more senior member of Arsenal’s squad. Something that was a bit more grown up.
An old head on young shoulders: Walcott
He had his eye on the ‘eight’. It was Freddie Ljungberg’s old number, a winger’s number, and a number he thought suited him. But Vic Akers, kitman and coach of the club’s all-conquering Arsenal Ladies team, had some bad news. It had already been allocated to Samir Nasri.
‘At that stage I didn’t even know we had signed Samir Nasri,’ says Walcott. ‘So I asked Vic what the options were. And he said I could have 23, 19 or 14. Without thinking I said I’d take the 14, because it was the lowest.’
It was only after the phone had gone down that the penny dropped. That he suddenly remembered why the 14 was available. ‘Thierry!’ he says. ‘I just thought: “Oh no!” Big pressure.’
But what could he do? Call Akers back and ask for Gilberto Silva’s old number instead? He might tell the boys. Or, worse still, the girls. ‘I just tried to convince myself that it’s only a number,’ says Walcott. ‘And then I made myself feel better by concluding that Thierry would probably be happy that I was now in 14.’
Walcott adores Henry, who is now at Barcelona. ‘I can’t believe he’s never won the world player crown,’ he says. ‘He was amazing here. The goals he scored, the way he scored them. The assists. He had everything. The right attitude on and off the pitch. He’s a brilliant man just to be around. He was the first person I walked into when I joined the club. I just remember being totally starstruck. Wow. I feel lucky that I now have some brilliant memories of actually playing with him as well.
‘Thierry was great with me and my family. He’d offer me advice, take an interest, but he’d also speak to my dad a lot as well. He was a real captain in that way, giving his time to the young lads coming through.’
Walcott is not quite so young now. He was 20 last month and from across a table at Arsenal’s training ground he looks more powerfully built than before. Perhaps a whole shirt size bigger than he was when he went to the last World Cup.
‘I’m obviously growing up but I’ve been doing a lot of work in the gym as well,’ he says. ‘After the problems with my shoulders I needed to bulk up and make myself stronger. And I worked hard for the four months I was out. People probably don’t realise but you often train harder when you’re injured than when you’re fit.’
His account of the shoulder injury he sustained during an England training session in Berlin in November is not one for the squeamish.
‘The problem with my shoulders was something I inherited from my dad,’ he says. ‘The left one would pop out and then pop back in — absolute agony — during almost
every game last season, so I had surgery to put it right last summer.
‘But in Berlin Scott Parker gave me a bit of a nudge, I slipped on the wet ground and the right one went. It popped out and popped back in like the left one always did. So I
kept going. We were playing Germany the next day and I wanted to be involved.
‘Then, though, I went up for this ball and when I was spinning in the air the shoulder dislocated again. And this time it stayed out. The pain was unbelievable.’
The doctors told him he had suffered what they call a fractured dislocation. ‘On the left I’d just had to have keyhole surgery,’ he says. ‘But this one needed open surgery. They needed to stitch back the bone.’
From the moment he could return to the gym, the aim was to return to the field bigger, stronger and faster. Faster? ‘I’d like to think so,’ he says. ‘Before the surgery the manager used to say I would carry my left side.
‘But now my sprinting action is much better. I’m more balanced when it comes to using my arms. I was a bit of a lightweight before. That was part of the problem. I’m
more powerful now and much better equipped to deal with the physical demands of the game.’
There has, however, been one drawback with all this. ‘My golf swing is wrecked,’ he says. ‘I was never that good but I’ve probably got the stiffest shoulders in the Premier League now and that isn’t good for golf.’
The boy is becoming a man. He was always bright. Bright enough to deal with suddenly being thrust into the limelight at such a young age. Bright enough to simply continue with his education under Arsene Wenger in the belief that the chance to prove himself would eventually come. With England as well as with Arsenal. But he now seems more mature and far more self-assured, in particular when it comes to tackling issues like celebrity.
Walcott already appears to be on the road to superstardom but a few more performances like the one he produced in Zagreb earlier this season and he could do more than simply replace David Beckham on England’s right wing. In this modern era of the black sporting superstar, the clean-cut kid from Newbury could displace Beckham as the face of English football. Another Lewis Hamilton or perhaps even a Tiger Woods.
‘I will just continue to focus on my football but when it comes to stuff like that I think it helps that I had that experience at the World Cup,’ he says. ‘I was only 17 but it gave
me an opportunity to see the way Beckham and Rooney handled themselves, and how they handled the pressure of a World Cup as well as things like the media.
‘I’m just someone who grew up in a small village. A family man who would like to think he hasn’t changed. But my eyes were opened in Baden-Baden to that side of things.
‘For me and Mel (his girlfriend) it was a bit of an eye-opener, and to begin with it did hit us. It all went a bit mad after Sven Goran Eriksson named me in the squad. The paparazzi were outside Mel’s house and it felt quite uncomfortable to begin with.
‘Then we got to Germany and there were all these superstars and celebs. I hadn’t even played in the Premier League, never mind for England. These were guys I just
watched on the TV and some of their wives and girlfriends were on the TV, too. It felt surreal to be honest. But it was a great experience. To be part of the England squad. To be part of the training sessions. I feel much more like I’m part of the team now because I didn’t play before. But it was still good for me.’
He kept a video diary of his time in Germany. ‘I watched it just the other day,’ he says. ‘It was funny seeing myself, looking so young. I’m sitting there raving about the freebies we’d been given. The laptop, the camcorder. It was something I wasn’t used to and you can see I’m very excited.’
Walcott is no less excited now. About playing in an Arsenal side he seems keen to remain a part of if his representatives can reach an agreement on a new contract with the club. About playing for an England side he hopes to be an integral part of for next year’s World Cup.
He is even excited about playing for England Under-21s in this summer’s European Championships. Wenger, and indeed Fabio Capello, could yet decide to stop him,
preferring instead to give him a summer off. But Walcott wants to play. ‘For me playing for England at any age is an honour,’ he says. ‘I’m looking forward to playing for the 21s in the summer. And while it’s ultimately up to the managers to decide, I think I will probably play.
‘In my opinion it would be good experience to play in a tournament because I haven’t really had that. It’s good experience for young players if they can win something as
well. The Italians do it and I’d like to do it, too.’ And Arsenal? How does he feel about a young side that, rather like him, are rapidly growing in stature and now look a decent bet for a place in next month’s Champions League final in Rome?
‘It’s a very exciting team to be part of,’ he says. ‘It’s pretty special. There are a lot of characters in that dressing room and on our day we feel we can beat anyone. We had a dodgy spell earlier in the season when key players were missing, not least Cesc (Fabregas), but people probably underestimate Arsenal.
‘I’ll let my agents deal with the contract situation and just get on with playing. But I do look around and think what a good team this is. We’ve got a great squad and some
great talents. Some of the things Robin (van Persie) and Eduardo do in training are just ridiculous.’
He’s not bad either, as he so memorably demonstrated with that hat-trick against Croatia. Certain coaches who really should have known better dismissed him as little more than a sprinter when he first appeared on the scene. But he is better than that. He can pass, cross, shoot. He has technical ability as well as athletic ability, so much so that Capello singled him out recently as the player who has impressed him most since taking charge of the national team.
‘When you’re working with these Arsenal players every day under this manager you can only get better,’ he says modestly. ‘I’ve worked hard and I’ve definitely developed since I came here. I work on crossing the ball at pace. That’s something that is not easy. And my first touch has improved, as has my understanding of the game.
‘I was actually surprised I started against Croatia. Mr Capello had looked at me in the Andorra game but I wasn’t sure I’d stay in the team. It was such a big game. Away from home.
‘But I was in and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nervous. I’ve played in so many stadiums but for the first 10 to 15 minutes I was a bag of nerves. There was real tension in the dressing room. Everyone was so focused and so keen to put the record straight after way Croatia beat us at Wembley and stopped us going to the Euros.
‘Like I said, though, I’ll just keep working. There are so many examples of players who have developed into great players under our manager, Thierry for a start, and I want to be one of them.’
Everything would appear to be in place. Even when it comes to the support he receives from his family. There’s Mel, now training to be a physiotherapist at a major London
teaching hospital. ‘She can look after me,’ says Walcott. And the man who has always been there for him. Who has always been his greatest supporter. Dad Don.
Don is a bit of a legend. Arsenal officials marvel at the way he hires a camper van every summer to watch his son during the club’s annual pre-season tournament in
Amsterdam and parents of the England players will always remember his outburst during the World Cup. Frustrated by Eriksson’s failure to deploy Theo from the bench, Don turned to the guy in the England shirt next to him and gave a scathing four-letter verdict on the Swede.
‘I think it was Jermaine Jenas’s mum who told him he was talking to Sven’s son,’ says Walcott. ‘My dad does put his foot in it sometimes, but he’s so passionate and so supportive.
‘He was never one of those nightmare sports dads. He was never a dad who shouted at his kid from the touchline. If I had a bad game he would always tell me to forget it and move on. He was a bit miffed when the whole child protection thing came in and he could no longer video my matches. But he and my mum just started to keep all the
newspaper cuttings instead and one day, when I’ve retired, I’ll sit down and look at them. Hopefully, it will bring back lots of happy memories.’
Like swapping shirts with Henry in Rome next month.
