Dear Theo

Arsenal and England winger Theo Walcott has a new autobiography, Theo: Growing Up Fast, out this week, and in it are a few "shocking" revelations about his times with the England squad. Here are a few of them, all swiped from Rory Smith's article in today's Telegraph:

• Wayne Rooney broke a cue in half because John Terry beat him at snooker.
• Some players deviated from their diets and ate grilled chicken once.
• Fabio Capello once shouted at poor Theo for making a mistake in training.
• He also threw a plate at Emile Heskey (okay, that one's pretty funny).

But for some reason it's no longer shocking that a moderately successful 22-year old footballer is already putting out an autobiography. The title almost sounds like a piss-take. I know, anything that gets kids to pick up a book and all. I'm guessing that's the target audience.

“There was something very stiff and starchy about Mr Capello’s regime before the 2010 World Cup,” Walcott wrote. “I found it difficult to be myself."

Stiff and starchy. Not bad. Let's the kids know that like them, Theo's not down with figures of authority keeping him from expressing himself.

“I had been injured so much that season that my confidence was fragile, but no one ever helped me. If you are the boss, surely you want everyone playing well and you want to encourage everyone. It killed me and I felt it wasn’t fair.”

I suppose this one's more of an appeal to the young people not to be afraid to express their sensitive side. Very difficult not to go down the "in my day, the men were men" route here. Yikes.