Walcott Still Not Safe From Chelsea's Clutches

Arsenal have gone to amazing lengths to prevent Theo Walcott’s transfer turning into a repeat of the bitter wrangling between Manchester United and Chelsea over Nigerian prodigy John Obi Mikel and the ugly spat developing between Leeds and Chelsea over three of the Championship club’s most promising teenagers.

Because Walcott cannot turn professional until his seventeenth birthday on 16 March, for the next two months Arsenal are effectively as vulnerable to another club turning Walcott’s head as Southampton were. ‘Until he signs a professional contract, a club is exposed,’ said Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein. ‘You can’t become a professional until you are 17, so we could only sign Theo as a scholar. As such, the situation is not secure.’

This is precisely the situation that has led to Mikel - the teenager who signed for United but who has subsequently tried to wriggle out of the arrangement because he decided that he prefers Chelsea - stalling his career in legal limbo. And in the past few days Leeds have contacted the FA Premier League to complain about alleged illegal approaches by Chelsea to three of the Elland Road club’s most talented 16-year-olds, Dan Rose, Michael Woods and Tom Tiao.

To avert any problems before Walcott can sign professional forms - and mindful that Chelsea were the other club seriously in for Walcott - Arsenal went to town with their legal department.

‘We are exposed, but we’ve done everything in our power to make sure we are protected,’ said Dein. ‘To make sure we had a bulletproof deal, there were no less than 10 sets of documents and everyone had to sign so many things there was a total of 84 signatures. It is the most I’ve known in any transaction. This goes into the football world record department.’

Could Walcott go before his seventeenth birthday? ‘It would lead to a very ugly arbitration and who knows what would come out of that,’ said Dein. ‘But it will not happen. We believe in the people we are dealing with. Theo’s family and his agent have been great. They would have got a better deal elsewhere financially, but they chose us. He will have a four-and-a-half-year contract, which will be extended during the course of time.’

It is particularly pleasing for Arsenal that they beat off competition from Chelsea for two of last week’s three new arrivals, with Vassikiri Diaby, who made his debut as a substitute in the defeat by Everton yesterday, also a target for Jose Mourinho.

‘People might not have heard of Diaby, but Arsene considers he could be the second Patrick Vieira,’ said Dein. ‘The Diaby signing was very difficult because we knew early on that Chelsea were the favorites. Arsene and I had to use the best of our selling points, to make the point that for the benefit of his playing career he’d be better off signing for us. We also had to deal with Auxerre, who had a better offer than our original offer, so that obviously forced the market up. If Chelsea were not there we would probably have paid less.

‘We cannot compete financially with Chelsea as they have the deepest pockets, so we have to use stealth. We have to be a bit clever. We want to get them young and develop them.’

Adding Diaby, Walcott and Manuel Adebayor into the mix is, Dein hopes, another message to encourage an all-important signature from Thierry Henry. ‘We can only show him ambition by building a 60,000, all-singing, all-dancing stadium and by bringing in talent,’ Dein said. ‘Arsene has a lovely expression: You need some salt and pepper in the soup. You need to spice it up, which we have tried to do with these three young prospects. The message is, we are building a stadium and a team for the future. And Thierry will not get a better financial offer than he’ll get from Arsenal.’

While Arsenal keep their eyes firmly fixed on the future, Liverpool must concentrate on the present as they face one of the biggest tests of what has been a long season at Old Trafford this afternoon, but 37 matches in you will not find Rafael Benitez making excuses about tired legs.

‘I’m not worried about the amount of games we play,’ the Liverpool manager said, possibly setting a Premiership precedent. ‘We have done the physical tests this week and we know the team is in good condition. We are properly prepared and when you are playing well and winning, it is easier to stop the players getting tired.’

Liverpool need to beat a big team if their long unbeaten run is to count for anything, although, typically, Benitez is reluctant to sound bullish about today’s match against United. While Sir Alex Ferguson has been building it up as the biggest fixture of the season, Benitez does not see it in the same way. ‘We will do our best to beat them, but if we cannot I will want to win the next game,’ he said. ‘We have two games in hand on Chelsea and they are the games we have to win. You get the same three points whether you beat a big team or a small one.’