Theo Walcott says £30m Chelsea player could’ve been a great signing for Arsenal this summer

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Theo Walcott believes a player Chelsea added to their squad in the summer would’ve made for a great signing for Arsenal.

Andrea Berta spent £250 million on eight players to bolster Mikel Arteta’s squad significantly.

Viktor Gyokeres arrived for £63 million from Sporting CP, while Noni Madueke, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze also arrived for in excess of £50 million.

While this window was deemed overwhelmingly successful for the Gunners by most fans and pundits, Walcott still believes that a different choice could’ve been made in one specific department.

• READ MORE: Confirmed Arsenal summer 2025 transfer ins and outs, signings and done deals

Theo Walcott says Liam Delap would’ve been a good signing for Arsenal

Chelsea landed Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap for just £30 million in one of the bargain deals of the summer.

Delap was loosely linked with Arsenal earlier in the window, but the Gunners ultimately chose to pursue Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko before opting for the former.

The Englishman scored 12 goals for the relegated Tractor Boys last season, demonstrating his quality at Premier League level already.

Chelsea ultimately won the battle to sign him, beating Manchester United to the punch, and Walcott believes Arsenal should’ve been more involved in this specific transfer saga.

“Many people look to sign strikers from across, you know, the globe,” Walcott said on the Overlap US.

“Why not go for someone tried and tested in the Premier League? [Jean-Philippe] Mateta, sorry to Palace fans.

“You want to keep hold of him? Or Delap, or someone like Ollie Watkins, you know what you’re going to get with these guys. I’m with you. I kind of understand that. It’s like a stopgap, and then have the younger guy to learn from that.

“I really feel like, you know, teams should do it. I feel Arsenal probably could have done the same thing with Delap, to be fair.”

Liam Delap’s statistics vs Viktor Gyokeres

Delap suffered a serious injury in August which will see him miss several months of football.

This means it’ll be difficult to compare the striker to Gyokeres for some time, to test the validity of Walcott’s suggestion, although the data from last season is interesting.

Gyokeres’ metrics were considerably better than Delap’s across the board. However, the context around these numbers is obviously incredibly important.

The Swede was playing in a dominant side and in a much less challenging league, while the Englishman was operating in one of the worst teams in the best league in Europe.

It’s hard to know what to make of these statistics, although they probably indicate that Gyokeres is the better player at this moment in their respective careers.