Theo Walcott Reportedly Rejects New Arsenal Offer: Why It's Great News

Theo Walcott has rejected Arsenal's new contract offer in the neighborhood of £75,000/week, according to reports from the Daily Telegraph. 

Per Jeremy Wilson and the Telegraph, 

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The club do not intend to make an improved offer and, if Walcott does not change his mind, they are willing to sell to the highest bidder. [...]

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There is still hope at Arsenal that Walcott will sign a new contract but, if there is no agreement over the next 48 hours, Wenger is relaxed about sanctioning his sale. With Walcott into the final year of his contract, Arsenal would consider offers starting from £11 million.

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Wilson reports Liverpool and Manchester City as possible destinations for the 23-year-old striker.

Now, before anyone begins sounding the alarm bells and challenging oneself to find as many ways as possible to fit the words "Arsenal" and "crisis" into the same sentence, Walcott's potential exit is actually great news for the Gunners.

At the risk of repetition, this is another opportunity to explain why Arsenal would be wise to cash in on their inconsistent wide man.

In over six-and-a-half years at the club, Walcott has failed to develop to the level expected of him, given his natural talents and Arsene Wenger's patient tutelage.

While there have been glimpses of what Walcott is indeed capable of when the mood strikes, those moments have been few and far between. They have certainly been too rare to justify the princely sum of £100,000 per week Walcott is supposedly demanding, as Goal.com reported back in April.

In fact, therein lies the problem. 

Walcott seems very good at declaring his own wants. He wants a triple-figure salary. He wants to be played as a central striker.

Yet applying himself more consistently to refining the raw aspects of his game to better suit Arsenal's intricate buildup style is apparently exactly the one thing Walcott does not want. His apparent lack of commitment on the pitch in recent appearances is alarming from a player who should now be considered a senior figure within a new-look team.

Walcott's continued presence on the squad can only hold Arsenal back. As an example, consider Walcott's role if the team were to change formation.

Many have called for Wenger to revert back to some version of the 4-4-2 he employed during his and Arsenal's glory years. Well, this suggestion has no chance of becoming reality if Walcott sticks around.

With the current personnel, Walcott would likely remain a winger, even in this altered alignment. However, with no buildup play or skills, and an unwillingness to track back, Walcott would make the right side of Arsenal's 4-4-2 a clear liability.

Some, including the player himself no doubt, would suggest that he instead be deployed centrally, as part of a two-pronged strike force.

However, in Walcott's case, it's dangerous to assume this simple positional switch would automatically yield better results. This writer has bemoaned Walcott's limited range of movement to no end. What exactly makes people think Walcott would necessarily make the runs even a central striker has to make in order to succeed?

Even for the existing formation, Walcott's presence proves prohibitive. Accommodating the 23-year-old means dropping one of Gervinho, Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski to the bench.

They are players each costing in excess of £10 million, and with more proven records of consistency and production than Walcott. However, one would be forced to make way, because make no mistake, Walcott would not stick around otherwise—despite his lack of accomplishments and contributions to back up that ego and bravado.

Keeping Walcott in a starting berth would be a depressing reminder of the culture of complacency and lack of accountability that has sometimes stymied Arsenal during their fruitless seven-year stretch.

Now is the ideal time for Wenger to admit that the Walcott experiment, while brave, simply hasn't worked and may have come along at just the wrong time.

Yes, he's had his moments, but they have been too fleeting and shouldn't fool anyone into thinking his departure would be as significant as those of Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie.