Theo Walcott's pace is still an asset but No10s have the greatest currency - The Guardian (blog)

Theo Walcott was once described by a leading pundit as a player who lacked a football brain, so it is interesting that the queue of clubs waiting to offer him a new home should he fail to sign a new contract at Arsenal is headed by Manchester City and Liverpool, with Chelsea also keeping tabs on the situation.

Walcott must have something going for him if that trio of managers all rate him, and it cannot simply be explosive pace. There is room for doubt over whether Walcott is a more talented footballer than Adam Johnson, the winger City have just shipped out to Sunderland, though he is certainly quicker and if used in the right way could be more effective. There is debate too over whether Walcott really is a winger, or whether he just gets played out there because that is where the quickest players find most space into which to run. There is a theory that Walcott could be lethal through the middle, though his erratic finishing and overall inconsistency means it has never been properly put to the test.

Perhaps City or Liverpool plan to do that, or perhaps they just think you can never have too many squad players with the sort of pace that can change a game, particularly if you are depriving Arsenal of another of their assets in the process. Either way, if Walcott does become a late transfer window mover he will be something of an anomaly this summer, because this season, to paraphrase the Fast Show, football clubs seem mostly interested in players with brains.

That is not an attempt to depict Walcott as empty-headed all over again. He is instinctive, rather than scheming, but there is nothing wrong with that. Someone has to get on the end of things, you would not want a team of playmakers, though you could just about form a team of playmakers from the Premier League major summer signings. Shinji Kagawa is a case in point, already playing so well and fitting in so neatly at Manchester United that question marks are being raised over Wayne Rooney's long term future.

That seems an odd notion at first, when Kagawa and Rooney are such different players, but now that Robin van Persie is available to lead the line and stick away the chances, Sir Alex Ferguson just needs a mobile, alert player to act as a fulcrum between midfield and attack, spreading the ball wide or moving it quickly forward, and Kagawa fits that role perfectly.

After he made way for Rooney against Fulham on Saturday the United attack became noticeably more clumsy and predictable. Those who wonder whether Rooney can form an effective partnership with Van Persie are going to have to wait over a month now to see them play together, following the England striker's injury. Initial signs were inconclusive, but it may be that Ferguson has no intention of playing them together. It could be one or the other, with Kagawa.

English football has just lost the cleverest player of the lot to Real Madrid, though at least Spurs recognised the loss and went for the wonderfully talented Moussa Dembélé with the Luka Modric money. Dembélé could be just as big a success at White Hart Lane as the man he is replacing. With better players around him his vision and touch should be displayed to better advantage, and as the Belgian is still only 25 he could have the best years of his career still ahead of him. It says a lot that Spurs are prepared to move out a player of the class of Rafael van der Vaart if Dembélé arrives, though with Gylfi Sigurdsson already having been picked up in the summer there are only so many places in which advanced midfielders can operate.

Not that that seems to be bothering Chelsea, who already had Juan Mata, one of the neatest and sharpest attacking midfielders around, and have since added Eden Hazard, Oscar, Marko Marin and Victor Moses. A combination of Mata and Hazard would be too clever for most teams, and where Chelsea plan to fit in Oscar and Marin is anyone's guess. Most people are guessing that Moses will fit in on the bench, and it is hard to see how it might be otherwise, but he is more of a tricksy winger than a playmaker anyway.

Liverpool have just signed up Nuri Sahin on a month's loan from Real Madrid, with Brendan Rodgers raving about his intelligence and technical ability. As the Liverpool manager pointed out, both of the last two players of the year in the Bundesliga are now operating in England. Kagawa won the award last year, Sahin the year before. Both are the sort of go-to players that are suddenly in demand in this country, with the brains to spring surprises in the final third. Hatem ben Arfa provides a similar service for Newcastle, and if someone succeeds in signing Portugal's João Moutinho (Spurs are said to be in the running, with their Portugese coach) then a high proportion of Europe's most gifted individuals would be plying their trade in the Premier League.

That is great for spectators, though not so good for England. Roy Hodgson cannot pick any of them, and for his next couple of internationals he cannot even call up Rooney. So it will be back to Walcott, Johnson and Stewart Downing, which seems to be England's natural level.

Fear not though, because the Elite Player Performance Plan has just been launched by the Premier League with the intention of bringing through more home-grown players with a competitive Under-21s league. The idea is to raise the percentage of Premier League players qualified to play for England to around half, up from its present rather pathetic 39%. That seems both worthwhile and achievable, though even if it comes to fruition is may not solve the rather more pressing problem facing England coaches. As Sir Trevor Brooking of the FA eloquently puts it: "For some time our 16-year-olds have not been good enough, given the size of the country. The void in all our teams, up to the senior national team, is in the attacking third. We need talented individuals at 16 able to become top strikers and No10s."

Cast your eyes around the Premier League, and you can see what he means. Top strikers? Rooney, maybe. Darren Bent, possibly. Andy Carroll, anyone? English No10s are in even shorter supply. Who has one? When was the last one? Teddy Sheringham? Paul Scholes? The position is a largely foreign concept, and English clubs mostly look abroad to fill it. Jack Wilshere has just been handed Van Persie's vacant No10 shirt at Arsenal, so there is hope, though like Scholes, he is just as happy battling in midfield. Rooney is probably England's best No10 at the moment, which makes things a bit awkward because he is also our best striker. And he's injured. The next England squad is out on Thursday. Never mind who is playing in the whole. Let's see who Hodgson can find to play in the void.