Everton have announced the signing of 28-year old former England international winger Theo Walcott from Arsenal for a reported £20m.
A club announcement read:
"We’re delighted to confirm the signing of Theo Walcott on on a three-and-a-half year deal.
Theo Walcott emphasised his ambition and declared, “I’ve come to Everton because I want the Club to push to the next level,” as he put pen to paper on a three-and-a-half-year deal to the end of June 2021. The 28-year-old England forward, three times an FA Cup winner with Arsenal for whom he scored 108 goals in 396 appearances, insisted he wants to win silverware for the Toffees and thrive at Goodison. Only Dennis Bergkamp (277) and Patrick Vieira (276) made more Premier League appearances for Arsenal under Arsene Wenger than Walcott, with Blues boss Sam Allardyce revealing he has brought him to Goodison “because of his experience with Arsenal, playing Champions League football and fighting to get into Champions League positions and winning FA Cups - and he’s got a lot of ambition.” For Walcott, the desire to win trophies for his new team burns as strong as when he first moved to The Emirates as a precocious 16-year-old a dozen years ago. “I’m very ambitious and I’ve come here because I want the Club to push to the next level,” Walcott said. “And with the players that have come in, I feel like the next level can be reached. “I’m very excited to be starting a new chapter and I felt this was the right place for me to be. “The manager is very ambitious and I feel like the Club is going in the right direction. “Everton is a club with a great history. The fans are always passionate, they’re great and I always used to find it very tough playing here. “The Club has won trophies but I want them to win trophies now. The manager is very hungry and it’s just what I need. I’ve had a couple of chats with him and straightaway I felt that hunger and that desire that he wanted from me. I need that and I wanted that. “I want to be part of something which he’s building and, like I said before, it’s a very ambitious club. “The fact there’s a new stadium going to be developing in the next few years, it’s exciting times for Everton Football Club. “I’m dead excited and I just want to do what I do best which is playing football and expressing myself because I’m excited again, I really am. “I do really believe that I’m going to give it my all, which is what I always have done, and this place is going to get even more out of me. “There’s something about this move which I’ve just felt good about. “It felt like it was time for me to move on [from Arsenal]. It was sad but it’s exciting at the same time and I want to push Everton to win things as they have done before. “I want to be part of something and I feel like this place will offer me that.”