It is a serious question.

His omission from the England squad was the biggest news regarding the 7 man cull yesterday and for me it was surprising because the England team is full over average players. It’s an average squad and an average team. If you wanted a definition of average then this currently England squad is it.

So Theo can feel hard done by because he’s no less average than anyone else in the squad.

Robert Green, Glenn Johnson, Stephen Warnock, Matthew Upson, Michael Carrick, Shaun Wright-Philips, Peter Crouch and Emile Heskey are extremely average players. At least Theo has a bit of pace.

But it begs the question, how good is Theo Walcott?

Because for me, he hasn’t developed. When he first arrived at Southampton, I saw footage of a young teenager with blistering pace and an eye for goal. Obviously it was in the lower divisions, but he was fearless and took on players with ease. But since joining Arsenal he hasn’t progressed.

When he first arrived I described him as “just a sprinter”. Harsh perhaps, but his vision, passing and crossing was raw. He is great at latching onto a through ball but the intelligence isn’t there for me.

And maybe I’m being harsh, but surely training with players like Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas would improve your skill on the ball. I’m astounded that he hasn’t picked up any tricks or ways to beat players. He is so one-dimensional it’s unbelievable. Intelligent defenders know exactly where he’s going – he doesn’t feint, he doesn’t shift the ball and he doesn’t knock it passed a player and run onto it. With a player gifted with his outstanding pace he doesn’t make the most of it.

He doesn’t make the defender think about what he might do. Pace is a defenders worst nightmare but if you just run in straight lines then it’s easy to defend against.

But is that Theo’s fault? You would think that Arsene Wenger would sit down and tell him to work on certain things. Thierry Henry and Ronaldo have proved you can be both skilful and have incredible pace but all Theo has is pace. His ball control and delivery is severely lacking and I’m not sure why neither of those things have progressed in the last 4 seasons.

There is the theory that Wenger’s approach to developing players is letting them work on their own ideals. So did Thierry Henry develop into a world-class player because he was more intelligent and knew what to work on? Some of the things Henry did were mind-blowing and maybe it was down to his own vision on the game.

The problem I have is seeing a position for Theo in the current Arsenal team. He can’t play as a central striker and I don’t think he has the intelligence to maximise the wide positions. Unfortunately, it seems like his biggest impact is from the bench because of his pace.

In the “Cesc Fabregas Transfer Saga” an article from Darren Lewis from the Mirror struck me as very interesting.

Why should Arsenal bow down to the demands (and quick frankly unscrupulous tactics) of Barcelona, who have clearly tried to unsettle our captain and drive down the price.

If Fabregas craves success in Spain and Arsenal are resigned to losing him, then why not sell him to Real Madrid?

It would be the least Laporta and Barcelona deserve, losing their prized target to their direct rivals. And Real Madrid (after forking out an estimated 56 Million Euros for the signature of Jose Mourinho) would be more than capable of giving us the market value of Cesc – especially when it would represent a massive coup against their title challengers Barcelona.

And maybe Arsene Wenger’s “inspiring conversation” opened Cesc’s eyes and made him realise that it is Real Madrid who will be the biggest club in Spain over the next few seasons.

After all, “The Special One” Jose Mourinho will be there and whatever you say about his arrogance and boring football philosophies he wins football matches and trophies. Don’t get me wrong, I personally can’t stand Mourinho but his achievements speak for themselves.

His record in Portugal, England and Italy is nothing short of remarkable and for my money, I would class Real Madrid favourites for La Liga and The Champions League next season. If you told me Inter Milan would win The Champions League last season I would have laughed. Inter are the team that always bottle the big games in Europe but here we are and Inter are European Champions, having knocked out teams like Barcelona, Chelsea and Bayern Munich – the champions of the other 3 big European leagues.

Maybe the “greatest conversation” in Cesc’s life is the big realisation that going to Barcelona isn’t such a great move after all.

Well after weeks of speculation, and no word from Arsenal, Arsene Wenger or even Cesc Fabregas the Arsenal captain has come out and said he had an “inspiring talk” with Arsene, which he described as the “greatest conversation I have had with someone in my life”.

BBC Sport has the article in full, and Cesc said the following at a Spanish press conference:

“It was probably the greatest conversation I have had with someone in my life.

“I respect him so much. He told me to concentrate on my football and the World Cup and he will deal with whatever happens in my future.

“It’s not up to me any more. It’s just now about Arsenal and whoever it has to be and that’s it. I don’t want to say anything else.

“I just want to be focused for the World Cup because it’s the most important thing. The rest, the future, I’m not interested in the future.

“The only important thing is to form part of this team and play in the World Cup.

“When I play it’s always to win and help my team-mates. I will give everything to help Spain be champions.”

But the big question is what was the conversation about?

Reading in-between the lines, you could possibly make a case for a deal being made. Why else would be say:

“It’s just now about Arsenal and whoever it has to be and that’s it. I don’t want to say anything else.”

That’s the line in the interview that worries me the most.

To me, Arsene has either said he’s going to spend big, bring in top players and give Fabregas the team he deserves around him to win things. And that he will become one of the greatest players to wear the Arsenal shirt.

Or, he has decided that he will let Cesc go to Barcelona and has promised him that a deal will be done after the World Cup.

What do you think?

Update: If Arsenal Sell Fabregas… It Should Be To Madrid!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you would have heard about Cesc possibly moving to Barcelona.

Depending on who you believe, he has either told Arsene Wenger that he wants to leave, or Barcelona are up to their usual tricks and trying to lure the player into admitting he would like to move, and reducing any potential transfer fee.

But whatever the exact ins and outs of the situation, it’s funny to see how Arsenal fans are reacting to the news.

The fact is Cesc Fabregas is the best player at the club. And the problem is, only Robin Van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna could be considered anywhere his level. The rest of the squad is filled with mediocre players who aren’t motivated and are over-paid. They might be talented individuals but they are not winners like the players I’ve just mentioned.

This Arsenal team is full of deficiencies all over the pitch and the biggest problem in Cesc’s eyes will be the lack of strength in the squad. We started the season excellently but as soon as Van Persie and Fabregas got injured we struggled. The rest of the squad performed admirably at times, but at others such as Wigan and Spurs away, let down the club with a lacklustre performance. There’s no doubt in my mind that with a fully-fit Van Persie and Fabregas we would have won the league, and that’s the problem.

The latest Premier League season has been the weakest in a long time. We narrowly missed out with a few games to go but with a more experienced squad we could have pushed even further. The fact that a club of Arsenal’s stature had to heavily rely on Sol Campbell is a damning indictment of how poor our squad actually is.

But with Arsenal over the last few seasons, it’s all been about ifs and buts. We could have won the Champions League with a bit more luck, we could have won the Premier League Title in 2008 and we probably could have won it this season. But our squad hasn’t been good enough, and unfortunately that blame can only be placed at the hands of Arsene Wenger.

Cesc knows the club more than most, and I have no idea what he must think about Arsene bringing in “superstar signings” like Marouane Chamakh on a free from Bordeaux. I’ve never been a fan of wasting money of superstars but how long can Cesc be sold the future based on “promising players”, especially when he has a golden chance to play for one of the best teams in the world.

And because of this Arsenal fans wouldn’t blame him if he left.

If this was Steven Gerrard and Liverpool, the fans would be begging for him to stay. I don’t think you would be able to find a single fan that would want Gerrard to leave. But with Arsenal, we wouldn’t blame him.

We see the Fabregas has to carry the team time and time again. And while he’s been at Arsenal he has been the consummate professional and extremely loyal and respectful. He’s only won the FA Cup despite playing in the first team for 6 full seasons now and Arsenal fans recognise that a player of his special talents should be winning trophies. And we also recognise that it isn’t going to happen at Arsenal any time soon.

So whatever happens this summer, we will be wishing the little Spaniard all the best.

But if he does leave, then where does that leave Arsenal?

Well it would be the final nail in Arsene Wenger’s coffin. In his crusade to prove that you can win things with talented and promising youngsters Cesc Fabregas is the icon. Cesc is the mouthpiece for everything Arsene is doing and believes in and if he leaves, then the whole project has collapsed in one fail swoop.

If Arsene can no longer sell the project to his star pupil, then how can he expect the fans to believe in it as well?

What little belief the Arsenal fans had in what Arsene Wenger is doing would evaporate. Because we know if Arsenal lose Fabregas then it would take some monumental signings to cover his absence, and we all know that wouldn’t happen.

And what would our other star players such as Robin Van Persie think?

Losing Cesc would be more than losing a very special player. We would lose our influential captain and any chance to progressing in the next couple of seasons.

And who knows what would happen with Arsene.

We can’t be told the same spin if Fabregas does go to Barcelona. After the sale of Patrick Vieira, we were all told we would be stronger than ever. The same happened when Thierry Henry left, but the simple fact was we ended up trophy-less and have done ever since.

Don’t make me laugh and tell me “we’ll be stronger” without Cesc because that just won’t cut it.