Theo Walcott signs for Everton for £25 million

Just days shy of celebrating a 12-year anniversary of signing with Arsenal, Theo Walcott is instead leaving the Gunners. Walcott has signed with Everton on a reported £25 million transfer that was finalized on Wednesday, and the long-embattled 28-year-old forward now faces the challenge of moving on with a career that never really seemed to find its way in London.

Walcott has long been something of a lightning rod of criticism among Arsenal observers, with many fans and critics alike disappointed that he never lived up to expectations. But it seemed as though every time he was getting ready to take that last step forward as a player, yet another injury would strike, leaving him sidelined and derailed once more.

While Walcott, who passed a medical with Everton on Tuesday, has suffered numerous leg injuries over the course of his career, the ACL tear he suffered in 2014 might have been the one that really took the wind out of his sails as a potentially high-quality player. Not only did he lose 10 months of his career to that injury, but he’s never gotten back his full open-field pace or ability to put on sudden bursts of acceleration in close quarters. For a player who was so reliant on his pace, that’s been incredibly difficult to bounce back from, and despite seeming to find his way somewhat a year ago with 19 all-competitions goals last season, he’s been in abysmal form for most of this campaign.

It’s true that Walcott had a good showing in a favorable Europa League group this season, with three goals in five games there, but that success has not translated to domestic competition. In just 10 appearances with limited minutes in the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup this season, Walcott has scored just once, earned zero assists, and has generally been one of Arsenal’s poorest players in those appearances.

Still, it’s hard not to look at the once-bright promise that Walcott had as a player and hope that there’s at least some spark still there in the 28-year-old. Everton have had a habit in recent years of finding ways to pull at least some degree of lost potential out of players, and they very much need a winger with the kind of skill that Walcott once displayed on a regular basis. It will take some time for him to adapt to Sam Allardyce’s more physical system of play compared to what he’s used to from working under Arsene Wenger for so long, but if Walcott can manage it, it would be wonderful to see him find success after so much disappointment.