Joel Campbell

Totally agree but lets not act like we are going to see 2012-2013 Theo Walcott again.

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It’s true.
Campbell is no better than anything we have already but because he seems to give more and has a better attitude, then supporters are going to appreciate him more than a player like Walcott who is inconsistent, average and has been given more chances than any footballer at the club.

What is Wenger’s obsession with Walcott?

He is our longest serving player, on massive wages, and still neither he or Wenger know his best position.
This situation would never happen at another top club.

So far this season he looks to have improved, hopefully he can keep it up…

Up until last season Theo progressed every season he’s been with us, Granted its was a slow progression but apart from last season Theo has been decent (but definitely no more decent apart from a few flashes)

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He is absolutely correct.
he was ten times better than both Theo & Ox last season & to shove him back on bench later that season, was clear indication of favoritism by Wenger.

Anyone with enough ego would have left.

What was weird was how late Campbell waited to make the move?
Maybe Campbell wanted to see if Wenger sells Theo & changed his mind about him.

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Campbell was absolutely better than Theo and Ox last year HOWEVER his upside and potential is far lower. He’s slow and can’t stretch defenses with his dribbling or pace. At their best Ox and Theo are better. If he had a brain Ox would be world class and if he develops half a brain, then he could be at least a pretty good player.

Yes Campbell works hard, smart passer and a good shot on him but he’s pretty basic that aside. We had times when he started last year where we were completely blunt as an attack.

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We have been blunt with Chamberlain and Walcott too. At least Campbell has the ability too keep a ball and can cope with the possession game to a degree. Not like those two English boys who have the touch of an concrete wall and lose the ball more often than not or simply don’t know what to do with.

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Eh, I wouldn’t call it an obsession. The simple fact is Walcott is the only player we have (hopefully now not the only one with Pérez, but we shall see) that has pace and makes runs in behind the defence. There tend to be more chances to be had when he’s on the pitch, though last season he seemed to lose his way and try to play like an Alexis type player when Alexis was injured and he was on the left, and his pace seemed less, and the chances that he created with his movement he was putting away at an alarmingly low rate.

Wenger’s belief in the use of Walcott is absolutely understandable given that he offers something much different from Campbell, who is just meh, or from Ox, who has ‘potential’ but is either a very, very bad version of Campbell or a more athletic and better one depending on if he ever can play with something of a brain. Given this it’s hard for me to understand why people can’t figure it out, and why you must resort to calling it an ‘obsession’, especially because if it was he wouldn’t’ve sat him on the bench for long stretches of time as he did in 14-15 when he came back (constantly preferring Welbeck) or last spring after his long run of poor form.

Wenger’s obsession with Ramsey is far weirder and more perplexing, and frustrating. And Ox is an obvious second place. His treatment/use of Walcott is coherent and easy to figure out, tbh…the only thing I can really criticise in it is you’d hope he could’ve just gone out and bought a better player that offers similar qualities (Lacazette, maybe), but still, this critique comes nothing close to the strength of the critiques we could launch at him for Ramsey and Ox.

It’s much of muchness really. Either go with the sure and steady mediocrity of Campbell or go with the upside. @arsenescoatmaker has put it pretty cogently I think. No doubt Theo on his current form offers us more than Campbell. Let’s hope it continues and hopefully even betters, to 12-13 levels for example.

Because Walcott is much better and has had more successful seasons, if Joel was as good as people say he’d be in the Arsenal team regularly but he’s not

Walcott at his best before the ACL managed 15 goals and 11 assists off 2500 minutes, which is top draw. He’s beginning to look nearer that player now, whether he keeps it up is another matter though as he looked back to his best at the start of last season and in the cup final. So maybe he’s past his best or maybe he can peak again, hard to say but if he peaks he’ll score plenty with Santi, Ozil and Xhaka spraying balls for him to run onto.

I prefer to look at Theo this way, in 10 seasons at the club he’s managed to hit double figure league goals once.

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Yeah Theo is just an average English player with no skill. Like Ramsey in 13/14 he had a freak season in 12/13 that doesn’t match his proper skill level.

Plus I’ve never forgiven him for jumping out the way of the ball against Sunderland back in April. I would have sold him just for that alone ffs.

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I bet if we gave Joel 10 seasons as a first choice right wing player, his numbers would be better.

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Joel can actually dribble the ball.
That alone should be enough to be ahead of Walcott.

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Over his career so far, Walcott has more standout moments than Joel, obviously. But in regards to last season, that was no evidence of Walcott being better than Joel at all.

Joel won’t be a World beater, but what I liked about him was he had a great knack for a killer through ball, bit of creativity that we really lacked at times last season and offered something not many other players do and that’s hard work and consistency. Not every player in a team can be a superstar, you’ve got to have some who follow somewhat under the radar but just get on with it and do their best for the team.

Just because he didn’t play as much as Theo doesn’t mean he wasn’t good enough. It’s well documented Wenger has his favourites. There;s many players during Wenger’s reign which suffered from playing nowhere near as many games as they should’ve done, and get completely frozen out in favour of others who were given more chances but offered less.

Joel has that thing Walcott lacks which is the ability to be smart and composed on the ball in the final third.

Ever since he broke out for the Costa Rica NT and Olympiakos to tbf, he has impressed many of us.

He is a long way above the current Theo Walcott. And Walcott will probably not be getting much better than he is now, whereas Joel still has a lot of room for improvement.

Joel won us many games last season with his impact.

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He was 17 when he joined, he’s started over 30 games once, not many wingers have any 10+ goal seasons and the fact Theo’s goals/assists per minute has been top level bar last season.

Anyway you can say the same about Mahrez to that one 10 plus goal season and Dimaria, Sterling, Willian never managed one.

At Joel’s age Theo managed a 21 goal 14 assist season in all comps, meanwhile Campbell’s record in a top league is 3 goals. The season before last he managed 1 goal for Villareal. Before that 2 for Betis.

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I doubt it, Campbell didn’t even get better numbers than Walcott last season

It’s not always about numbers.

I rather have a player who improves the team on a whole & help them perform/score more; than a player who is invisible 80percent of time making the team disjointed.

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There’s no doubt Campbell has been mistreated. I see no reason whatsoever why Ox gets to stay and play whilst Joel was sent out on an unproductive loan.

I rate Joel, in my mind he’s a more useful player than Ox. Always bothers me when people talk about potential and ceilings as a reason to give Ox the benefit of the doubt.

Joel simply provided more clear evidence of quality, there was a consistency to his play but never given the chance to prove it. I don’t really buy any of this BS about pace tbh, he showed plenty of times in the final third he has a good burst of acceleration and dribbling plus his technique and vision compensated.

Ox is the classic example of a player whose attributes makes him the neglect the mental aspect of the game because he found it so easy to take on successfully because of his pace whereas Joel, who has some physical limitations, developed his intelligence and technique well. Plus Campbell has a much better attitude than Ox. Maybe we brought Ox too early.

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What upside? Both have shown to be mediocre players too. Don’t forget we have seen those two guys play in 149 and 347 games. Campbell is at least less of a nuisance and has shown to be more useful. I’d rather have none of these three guys, but if I’d had too pick I’d go for the sure thing in this case, yeah.