AFTER falling asleep on the team coach as the Southampton squad headed back from an away trip to Hull City in November, Theo Walcott woke up to find his face covered in Jaffa Cakes.

At 16 he had had his first lesson in professional football. Now Arsenal, after agreeing a deal that could be ultimately worth £12m, are hoping to have learned their own lessons from the past as they try to aid the development of English football's next sensation.

It was only seven years ago when Arsene Wenger stunned the rest of the country by paying £2m for a 15-year-old who had already made his Football League bow with Notts County.

Jermaine Pennant is the name in question and, despite still playing in the top-flight with Birmingham, his undoubted talent has been overshadowed and restrained by his behaviour outside of the game.

A regular at England Under-21 level he may have been, but Pennant struggled to make inroads on the Arsenal first team and was pedalled to Birmingham permanently in the summer.

That, more than the player's failure to prove his worth as a footballer, was more to do with the fact he spent a month in prison for drink-driving offences. He has also been sent home from Birmingham's training ground for another drink-related incident since.

The pitfalls of a teenager making a big-money move at such a tender age are clear for all to see. Arsenal, though, must have done their homework.

They will be as desperate to steer clear of a repeat than any other club.

In Pennant's case his family life in his younger days could quite clearly have played a part in what has happened to him later in life.

Brought up in the tough Nottingham neighbourhood of Clifton, he went off the rails as a youngster after often being left to fend for himself.

Walcott, on the other hand, heads to Highbury with the full backing of his family.

And to know Arsenal's fingers were burnt in their last run-in with an expensive English teenager can only help Walcott mature into a dedicated sportsman.

Whether the talent he possesses now - he has shown plenty of promise in just 23 first-team Championship games for Southampton this season - will grow into internationally world-class standard, only time will tell.

He possesses the pace. Being able to run 100m in 11.5secs highlights that particular fact and is the main reason why his game has been modelled on Thierry Henry, rather than Wayne Rooney.

Walcott will not sign his first professional contract until his 17th birthday on March 16, so will remain a scholar until that date. Meaning, for now, he will remain on the £4,500-a-year he earns.

After March 17 he will turn into a millionaire within a year thanks to a £15,000 a week basic wage and a lucrative boot deal, reportedly with Nike.

The likelihood is that Walcott, who rejected signing schoolboy forms at Stamford Bridge in 2000 in favour of going to Swindon, could have earned far greater than that had he not snubbed Chelsea for a second time in six years this week.

Blues owner Roman Abramovich was prepared to commit more of his seemingly infinite wealth to signing the teenager for Jose Mourinho, but Henry's influence in the end proved the persuasive factor.

And that, you would think, should prove to be to the benefit of Walcott.

With Chelsea always likely to be looking to spend, spend, spend on strengthening their squad with more and more world-class talent, Walcott could have been left behind - just as Shaun Wright-Phillips has found this season.

At least at Arsenal, Wenger has shown his determination to invest in youth.

This season may not have been as successful as he would have liked but the experience gained by a host of his youngsters will be invaluable.

And, even if Walcott has to wait until next season to take his Arsenal bow, the Gunners will give him every chance to make sure the raw teenage talent that started to develop at ten-years-old is given a chance to shine for one of the most highly-respected clubs in Europe.