Sam Allardyce keen to bring Theo Walcott to Everton in January

Everton boss Sam Allardyce is reportedly ready to bring Theo Walcott to Goodison Park either in January or at the end of the season.

According to the Mirror, the former England manager will be handed significant funds next month to improve a squad that is severely short of pace, despite the fact the club spent in the excess of £150m in the summer.

Some of those funds could be invested to convince the Arsenal forward to move to Merseyside, after he was originally linked with a move to the Toffees in October.

The 28-year-old has fallen down the pecking order at the Emirates and has featured only 12 times across all competitions so far this season, playing a meagre 46 minutes of Premier League football.

The forward was not included in the squad for the Gunners' last seven league games and Arsene Wenger could allow him to leave north London if a suitable offer is received.

Walcott, who has scored 65 goals in 267 Premier League appearances for the Gunners and won three FA Cups during his 10-year spell at the Emirates, has 18 months left on his contract but looks unlikely to commit to a new deal, meaning he would be able to walk away for free at the end of the season.

Arsenal, however, are desperate to avoid a repeat of the scenario that has unfolded with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, with the pair also seemingly on the verge of leaving the Emirates as free agents at the end of the current campaign.

The former has turned down Arsenal's offer of a new contract and will leave in the summer, with Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City among the favourites to land him. The latter, meanwhile, was offered a new deal back in February, only for negotiations to be quickly put on hold amid the uncertainty surrounding Wenger's future.

The Frenchman eventually penned a two-year extension to remain in north London but negotiations over Ozil's contract have not yet resumed and the 2014 World Cup winner could follow Sanchez's example and find himself a new club in the summer.

Arsenal, however, are keen to recoup at least part of the £12m fee they paid for Walcott in 2006 but finding suitors could be problematic for, given his £110,000-a-week salary makes him one of the Gunners' highest paid players.

Southampton, Walcott's former club, and West Ham are also understood to be interested in signing the London-born winger, who won the last of his 47 England caps in November 2016 in a friendly against Spain.