Arsenal Transfer News: Theo Walcott On Signing a New Contract, Arsene Wenger and Winning Trophies

Mar 20, 2013 03:05 AM EDT

At the beginning of the season, it looked like Theo Walcott would be the next big name player to leave the club, after a contract deadlock seemed to cause both the player and the manager Arsene Wenger a lot of strife.

Wenger, clearly not happy with the way things were going, left Walcott on the bench for the first couple of months of the season, which led to the Arsenal forward further delay on renewing his contract, which would have expired at the end of the season.

However, slowly but surely Wenger started playing Walcott from the start, even giving him a chance up front down the middle, which then led to both parties agreeing to a new three-and-a-half year deal in January.

Walcott admitted the negotiations did take a long time, and was just happy to finally sign on the dotted line after finally agreeing on terms with the club.

"I was always thinking about it, but I had the Euros last summer and I wanted to concentrate on that, and not have other things on my mind," he told the club's official website. "Then I wanted to have a break before the season, which is important because we don't have a winter break.

"I think the previous contract took more than six months to finalise, and this was probably a bit longer actually. It's one of those things that's never going to happen overnight. When everyone's happy, that's when to do it, and thankfully it turned out that way."

Such was the delay in agreeing a new contract that Walcott's Arsenal teammates made up a song, called "Sign Da Ting," as a way of encouraging their teammate to commit his future with the club.

"The 'Sign Da Ting' song -- Lukas Podolski loved doing it every time he saw me in the dressing room, in training," Walcott continued. "All the guys would joke about it.

"It wasn't too serious because players know how long contracts take, and they don't want to get involved. But it's always healthy to have a bit of banter, and it made me smile every time hearing that - that's why I love these guys. They're great."

Wanting to play as a striker has been one of Walcott's primary objectives, with Wenger himself several times saying that is where he saw the England international playing in the future.

The Arsenal manager finally yielded and played Walcott up front on a few occasions this season, and the forward has shown he is indeed capable of doing well in that position.

Walcott revealed that decision also played a key role in finally signing on that new contract.

"I think having an opportunity to play up front played a part," he admitted. "Saying that, I don't feel we should change it at the moment with Olivier (Giroud) doing so well there. The manager obviously knows what's best for the team, but it's nice having more opportunities to show what I can do up front.

"The boss has always had so much belief in me from a young age, but we haven't won anything for a long time now, so we want to pay him back by winning something. If we don't perform he always takes it back on himself, but at times it's not fair because we're the players that go out there and do it.

"He definitely lets us know when we are not performing though, which is the right way to do it. He's a great manager and I've learned so much from him over the years."

Arsenal might not have won a trophy in eight years, but Walcott believes winning one can be a catalyst to bringing back the glory days of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

"Once the team wins the first trophy I think you'll start to see us coming back to where we should be," Walcott added. "It's important for me to be a part of that, considering the amount of time I've been here.

"But I think the fans are starting to see a massive change. I'm still young, but I have so much experience and I absolutely love entertaining all the fans -- that's important to me.

"When a team is playing well it makes your job easier and when you're winning games it's fantastic to be a part of it. It's when things aren't going too well that you need to stand out and get your team back involved."

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