Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is a player that many Gunners fans love, but seemingly for the wrong reasons. It is understood that Chamberlain may have more fans at the club based upon his humorous approach and media work, rather than his performances on the pitch. Such have been the state of his performances, it is reported that Arsenal have reportedly put considerations to extend his contract on hold, as they wonder whether his future truly does remain in North London.
The Ox was the second young starlet to join the Gunners from Southampton, following on from Theo Walcott’s big money move when he too was just a young boy. Chamberlain joined Arsenal back in 2011 and in 5 years at the club, Chamberlain has failed to make much progress. The then 17 year old was highly anticipated to be one of England’s brightest young talents and a £12 million transfer to Arsenal seemed to be a good deal for the Gunners. However if Arsenal were looking to sell the Ox now, 5 years later down the line, I would be surprised to see the player go for a higher fee and that’s even considering the fact that he’s got the ‘English price tag’.
Chamberlain just hasn’t cut it at Arsenal and although during each and every season he has shown glimpses of greatness and potential, unfortunately for the midfielder he cannot do the job on a consistent basis and his level of performance drops more often than not. The Ox has sadly turned into a Theo Walcott 2.0 and although I think there is more hope for Oxlade Chamberlain than there is for Walcott at Arsenal, largely based upon age, I am still not surprised to hear that there have supposedly been talks about whether Arsenal should sell the 23 year old.
Arsenal were reportedly open to listening to offers for Chamberlain this summer, both on loan and in permanent deals, however clearly nothing materialised. Despite a seeming lack of interest therefore, the media is now reporting that Arsenal will not be looking to extend the Ox’s contract anytime soon, unless his performances and consistency dramatically improves.
Although Arsenal’s main contractual priorities remain with Alexis and Ozil, both of which have contract expirations at the end of next season, Chamberlain too last signed a contract with Arsenal back in 2012, meaning his contract must also be close to running out.
With no offer currently on the table, Arsenal must now consider what their plan of action is when it comes to Chamberlain. Although he hasn’t exactly proved his value, it would be silly to let Chamberlain’s contract run down and so it’s vital that an extension is agreed soon. From that point onwards, Arsenal should either focus on shipping the player out of the club, or get him to dramatically up his game.
By AH
We should have kept campbell, he is much better and more consistent than the ox. Cant understand why we pin our hopes on the ox coming good when we had the likes of gnabry also. Frustrating
@ admin
Can we do a poll, maybe with each article to see who Just Arsenal members think our best team and bench is?
1st Select goal keeper
2.nd article RB
And so forth, until we get a team and bench then you can put an article.
It could be interesting.
Let’s do a petition guys, 50 Thumbs up for admin to do it
Do you not Want it cause you fickle and once you pick your best 11 and we lose you can’t blame Wenger
Ox end product can be so frustrating. Boy can dribble but his final ball keeps you scratching your head. I want him to excel but……….
Time and again he has failed to produce the goods with either his final pass or shot. He looked way of the pace against PSG and his body language was saying “get me out of here”. It’s time for the Ox to depart from the first team squad and find his feet somewhere else weather that be in the reserves or a permanant move away from Arsenal.
There is a core of players at Arsenal that I truly think wenger would donate a kidney for. Ramsay wilshire ox Walcott, to name a few. And whilst that is admirable, being so close to the players means that wenger sometimes shows loyalty to them ahead of the success of the team.
How many players in transfer windows have we passed on in fear that we would hamper the progress of the faithful few that are not even developing.
Wenger just needs to get that balance right!
Even though it seems as if he has been around for ever lol
People forget that the Ox is still a very Young player.What is he 22-23? ?
The goal he scored against Liverpool showed us what he is capable of and it would be a shame to lose a potential beast, who still has 5 or 6 year before he peaks.
The main issue with the Ox is his mentality, he seems to lose his concentration, confidence and purpose very quickly.
And even though wenger knows this, he isn’t doing anything to help the player apart from stating the problem.
You point out a few issues with the Ox – he just turned 23 last month, and when you think about moments like his goal against Chelsea in the community shield, or his brace against Palace in 2014, you see he has huge potential. He is an excellent athlete and has flashes of real brilliance.
But his career so far has been personified by his performance against Monaco last season in that 1-3 loss – he scores an excellent goal to bring us back into the game, then minutes later he weakly gives the ball away for their killer third goal.
I really want him to come good, and he tempts you into thinking its about to happen, and then dissapears, or worse, gives the ball away for the losing goal. So frustrating.
I recently heard something in a discussion which has reasonated with me ever since.
The most important thing we are missing in our players is ” consistency” and the Ox & Walcott probably suffer the most in this aspect.
I am not sure if Ozil or Sanchez need to be taught anything. On their day they are world class. The question is how consistent are they? Ozil for instance was nowhere to be seen against PSG. It is these big matches that we need Ozil, Sanchez and Cazorla to step up!
Apart from a truly world class striker (Ala Aguero/Lewondaski) we are good on all fronts. All we need to do is keep these group together and put all our effort in making them more consistent !!!!