Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed that he intends to ignore Theo Walcott's pleas and continue playing the Englishman in a central-attacking position.
The 27-year-old was switched from his wing role last term after promising to score a further 20 goals a season if given a more prominent part to play in attack.
That plan largely failed, however, as Walcott scored just nine goals in 42 appearances and missed out on a place in England's Euro 2016 squad as a result.
Walcott himself recently conceded that he is better off returning to a wide position, but Wenger has other ideas - claiming that it may simply be a confidence issue rather than anything to do with ability.
"I believe that he has all the ingredients to be a great striker, because of the quality of his runs," the Frenchman, who is said to be on the lookout for a new prolific striker, is quoted as saying by The Metro. "He is an intelligent player, a good finisher. He is not a great defender so I believe that to use his runs in the final third for us could be very efficient.
"After that, I think scoring goals playing there, giving him confidence to play there, will slowly convince him maybe that he can be absolutely fantastic there. On the flank, today there is much defensive work asked from the players that you lose a lot of his qualities when you put him there. For me in my head I will use him more up front."
"Especially one game that was a question for Theo Walcott was at Man United (a 3-2 defeat in February), where everyone questioned him in his position. Because on the day he didn't perform well. But it was not only Theo Walcott who didn't have a great game, it was everybody. But from then on people became sceptical."
Walcott has scored 85 goals in 334 senior appearances for Arsenal since joining from Southampton a decade ago.
Daniel Lewis
