Vermaelen hopes 'invaluable' Theo Walcott sorts out deal

 
p62 Reading's Noel Hunt, right, vies for the ball with Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen during the English Premier League soccer match between Reading and Arsenal at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, England, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012.
AP
James Olley18 December 2012

Thomas Vermaelen today urged Arsenal to convince Theo Walcott to sign a new contract but admitted the players are powerless to stop a high-profile team-mate leaving the club.

Walcott scored the fifth goal in the 5-2 win against Reading last night to move Arsene Wenger’s side up to fifth in the table.

The 23-year-old claimed afterwards that “talks were ongoing” over an extension to his present deal which expires next summer. But Arsenal boss Wenger has grown frustrated at the lack of progress, with the club refusing to increase their offer of a five-year contract worth £75,000-a-week.

Walcott is also seeking assurances that he will be deployed more regularly as a centre-forward, as he was at the Madejski Stadium, and Vermaelen hopes negotiations will reach a positive outcome.

“Of course we want him to stay but that is something that is going on between the player and the club,” the Arsenal captain said.

“I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes — we don’t talk about it. Of course, Theo has been invaluable for us when he played this year. He is dangerous for us and I hope he could stay this year.

“[We don’t talk about it] because that is going on in football all the time. It happened last time with Robin [van Persie] in the summer. It’s the job of the board and the club what they are going to do with it so we can’t do anything about it.

“We know his qualities — he is quick and goes in behind defenders all the time — and I think we could find him yesterday and it helped us score a few goals.”

Vermaelen missed the decisive penalty that condemned Arsenal to defeat in their Capital One Cup quarter-final shoot-out against Bradford last week and the Belgian centre-back admitted it had been a difficult week at the club.

“The team were disappointed because, of course, you want to win [against Bradford] but the thing is we were focused straight away again and we know in England we have so many games that we can make it up again straight away,” he said.

“You can’t stand still too long with a defeat like that — you just learn from it and move on.

“We had a lot to prove. A lot of people questioned us, and maybe that’s normal, but we wanted to perform yesterday and we think we did that.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, on loan at Juventus, will be out for two months after having surgery on the adductor longus tendon in his left thigh.

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