Tottenham’s Gareth Bale v Arsenal’s Theo Walcott There’s No Comparison
By Logan Holmes
A few weeks ago, Arsenal fans tried to compare Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott. In this week’s Mirror, after another outstanding performance by Bale against West Ham, George Burley who gave them their Southampton debuts admitted that Bale was ‘better than Theo Walcott’. HotspurHQ’s newest writer, Charlie Bee, calls for the comparisons to end.
Theo Walcott vs Gareth Bale Comparisons. Please Stop.
Article written by a new writer to HotspurHQ: Charlie Bee
Gareth Bale – no grounds for comparison. [Photo: Logan Holmes]This article may be tainted with bias from the outset, but it only serves to mirror the inane amount of stupidity thrown around Twitter from a select number of Arsenal fans over a table allegedly providing proof that Walcott is forty times the player that Bale is and ever will be. Whilst I respect that the following is aimed at only a select minority, and will be about as clear in places as Jim White’s deadline day musings, it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with.
A 6×6 fan-made table claiming that Theo Walcott has scored more goals and had more assists than Bale is immaterial within this argument. Although, it would be a valuable tool for highlighting the moral decay of levels of intelligence and desperation growing in the red half of North London, the fact that Walcott has predominantly scored against the lesser teams, where he bagged the majority of his goals (5 against Reading, 2 against Coventry this season) in prestigious competitions like the League Cup hardly prove him to be a better player than the Welsh magician that is Gareth Bale. A hat trick against Newcastle, whilst an impressive feat is hardly the San Siro heroics offered up by Bale against the imposing figures of the Italian giants, Inter Milan in Spurs’ inaugural season on the top European stage. Every time a Gooner retweets that post, a puppy somewhere should die of sheer embarrassment, it’s body left undiscovered for three weeks before it slowly rots into a thick liquid which Pat Rice scoops off the ground and pours into Arsene Wenger’s infamous water bottle which he drinks without hesitation.
If this was a Walcott vs Aaron Lennon comparison then maybe, just maybe, you would’ve had a case for an argument, but no. You jumped straight off the cliff, right into the deep end, waddling up in each others’ support like Lemmings, unfortunately for us, the cliff is merely metaphorical. When your precious Thierry was ripping up the Premier League did we sit there making fact tables comparing his goals to the far superior Jimmy Greaves? No, so show a touch of humility will you, and accept that we acquired the better player from Southampton. Oh and for the record Greaves scored more. Bang.
It would be very narrow minded of me to dismiss the fact that whilst Walcott had a mere six months left on his contract he was of course, fighting off interest from Europe’s elite. His signature caused a metaphorical gold rush, the top clubs digging deep in order to snatch his signature, the likes of ….. Hang on a minute, that’s right, absolutely no-one. Teemu Tainio’s departure from English football heralded a bigger transfer saga than Theo ‘The English Messi’ Walcott who didn’t have anywhere else to go, whereas the inferior Gareth Bale attracts interest from the lesser known clubs in world football like Barcelona and Real Madrid.
If there are any Arsenal fans left at this paragraph, I will show a touch of humility here and prove to you that, in fact, I am a semi-decent bloke and offer you the feeling that I am currently experiencing through a related series of events, appealing directly to whatever modesty there is left within you. When you next hit the RT button in an attempt to gain some sort of recognition amongst your “GOONA FAMILY” think of the Tom Cleverley vs Jack Wilshere comparisons and you have a common ground between the Bale and Walcott comparisons.
The comparision between the two, it seems stems from an ingrown jealousy and one of desperation. Jan Vertonghen rejecting you, now Lewis Holtby? A mere point separated us last year, even though you spent £57million more than us per year, surely highlights the divide or lack of it nowadays. It must be hard for you lot down the road, still living in 2001 but mark my words, ‘the times they are a changin’.