Attacker Arsenal sold for £20m reckons he’d be worth £125m today
Transfer fees in recent times have gone through the roof.
Yes, inflation in day-to-day life is a pain in the backside to the point that most of us don’t even blink at the idea of paying £6 for a pint, but in football, it’s a whole different ballgame.
These days, relegated players can cost north of £80m, while some best-in-class players are genuinely valued at around the £200m mark.
Of course, it hasn’t always been this way, things were, at one point, much more reasonable.
Speaking to ESPN, Theo Walcott has been discussing how much he thinks he would be worth these days, and he gave an interesting answer to that question.
Theo Walcott reckons he’d be worth £125m today
Walcott was asked to put a number on how much he would be worth in his prime.
The winger was genuinely the brightest young talent in England at one point, but his peak performance maybe came in around 2012 at the age of 26.
@espnukHow much would a prime Theo Walcott cost in today’s market? 👀💰
♬ original sound – ESPN UK – ESPN UK
At that point, Walcott was blossoming into a top Premier League attacker, before injuries started to take hold.
Walcott reckons he’d be worth £125m in his prime, and, to be honest, that isn’t unreasonable.
Bradley Barcola has just moved for that exact fee, and while he is a two-time Champions League winner, in terms of numbers and output, he’s at a similar level to Walcott was in his pomp.
Of course, we’ll never truly know what a player like Walcott was worth in his prime – he was so hyped as a 16-year-old that you could imagine a crazy amount being spent on him at that age, but it is interesting to ponder what some of the stars of yesteryear were worth.
Walcott eventually left Arsenal for Everton in a deal worth £20m, and back then that was considered a lot of money.
These days though, £20m is barely anything for a Premier League club, and you’d be looking at paying a lot more than that for a player of Walcott’s pedigree, that’s for sure.