According to Paul Joyce of The Times, Everton have placed Theo Walcott on the transfer list and are willing to listen to offers this summer.
The 31-year-old is coming off the back of an inconsistent season and only has one year remaining on his deal, so Carlo Ancelotti has a decision to make whether to cash in early or risk losing Walcott for nothing in 2021.
The fact he’s been linked with Leon Bailey and Bertrand Traore as potential replacements suggests there could be at least one winger in and one winger out before the window shuts in October.
Walcott decline
Walcott has made 83 appearances in all competitions since joining from Arsenal in 2018, scoring 11 goals with nine assists. The England international only managed two goals and four assists in 29 games last season, so he’s not exactly set the place alight under Ancelotti.
Walcott featured in 67% of our games (29/43) but only played 37% of the minutes available (1449/3870), so he’s slowly falling down the pecking order and becoming surplus to requirements – Alex Iwobi (1601) and Richarlison (3080) racked up more minutes than the ex-Gunner.
There’s little value in us paying £5.2m-a-year/£100k-a-week wages for Walcott based on his paltry goal output, so it makes more sense to cash in before his value drops.
How much could he fetch?
We paid £20.25m for Walcott two years ago, but CIES Football Observatory believe he’s now worth €2m-€4m (£1.8m-£3.8m), Transfermarkt estimate is asking price would be around £10.80m and Transferzone say his market value is €12.2m (£10.95m).
With his poor form and lofty wages, it’s unlikely many top clubs will be after Walcott. We may have to lower our demands to facilitate a move this summer.
Who would he join?
Walcott will struggle to attract interest from any Premier League club with only 10 goals in his last three top-flight campaigns, so his future may be abroad as no side in the Scottish Premiership or English Championship can afford his salary.
English players tend to favour a move that keeps them in Europe, so maybe Walcott could look at the German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1, Spanish La Liga, Dutch Eredivisie, Italian Serie A or Portuguese Liga NOS this summer. The Turkish Super Lig has been a destination for Premier League players in the past too.
Summary
Selling Walcott is the right decision and eyeing Bailey or Traore as his replacement wouldn’t be a bad move either. Time will tell if we manage to swap out our winger, however, as he won’t have a lot of clubs clamouring for his signature.