Did Arsenal actually do WELL with Ox transfer to Liverpool?

Arsenal fans do not want to see our players sold to rival clubs in the English Premier League at the best of times, so on the face of it the transfer this week of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool fresh on the back of our 4-0 humbling at Anfield by the same club does not sit well.

However, one of the choices was to keep a player that does not want to play for Arsenal and the way he performed against Liverpool last weekend suggests that would not be a great idea. Another was to sell him to the reigning EPL champions Chelsea and although the Ox rejected that move I think he would have taken it had we not dealt with the scousers.

So as reported by the BBC, Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board agreed the England international’s move to Anfield and here is why I think we may have actually done well.

For one thing we got a very healthy £40 million transfer fee for a player who would have left for nothing next summer and when you look at his goal record of 20 and just nine in the league from seven seasons and almost 200 games as a Gunner, you could say that we have taken Liverpool for a ride.

Only recently has the Ox started to really look the part at Arsenal and I reckon that could be because of Wenger giving him the new wing back position. But he does not want to play there and that is apparently why he did not want the Chelsea transfer.

So he goes to Liverpool to play in the middle or as a winger, but they already have the likes of Mane, Coutinho, Firmino and Can, so is the Ox really going to strengthen their side. Is he even going to be a regular first team player?

Is this bit of unlooked for transfer business actually good for Arsenal?

Bob.

49 Comments

  1. Was disappointing to see Ox leaving like that after 7 years of sticking up with his problems. But hey, we all know this is Wenger’s Arsenal. Trusting people to stab you in the back. I was rating him high and I never thought he will pi$$ on us like that but I guess I was wrong and indeed there’s no loyalty these days. I also doubt we ever offered him 150k a week just as we offered 92 mils on Lemar. Kidding me? Wenger needs to answer why he played him if he knew that he will join Liverpool. At least we made a nice profit out of him. Good riddance.

    1. I think all of the Arsenal fans trusted Ox and were willing him to do better, and yes, it does hurt when you are stabbed in the back. I don’t get it, modern or not, joining a club is a bit like joining the army, you are out to fight for your survival, and because you are losing, you don’t just desert and go to the opposition, and leave all your comrades behind. Modern or not, that won’t change. The way he did it was unfortunate, and felt ungrateful after the years of support and encouragement we’ve given him. To be kissing the badge of a team who’ve done us a lot of damage recently, even if that was management’s fault, not the fan’s who have supported him, was quite sickening. Unfortunately the 40 million doesn’t matter to fans, it won’t win us matches, it will just go down the Kroenke tub. It is almost as if the fans and team mates were irrelevant to him. Cesc has handled it well, and most fans realise he tried to come back to Arsenal, but joining your direct rival is completely different. He won’t be welcomed when he comes back.

      1. Stabbing in the back? Rubbish. If you want loyalty, get a dog. This is the age of professionalism. This site does nothing but criticise Wenger all day, but then you blame a player for leaving when he can also see that the club under Wenger is going nowhere? Please…..

        1. Yeah – we should’ve had a dog on on Sunday, would’ve played better. I support Arsenal, not Wenger, or players that aren’t committed to the club. You can do that and kiss the Liverpool badge but it’s not for me.

          1. All this selective indignity when a player leaves Arsenal, but no criticism when a player leaves another club to join Arsenal. Really? Think about the whole football scene for a change and broaden your outlook. Did you become upset when Neymar left Barca? Did you become upset when Lacazette left his French club ( to join the Gunners, no less)……..

              1. This discussion is pointless when one side is wearing blinkers and cannot see the broader picture. Looking at Arsenal in isolation just gets you nowhere (and by the way I have been a supporter for 47 years). I also do not like what Wenger is doing and nobody is sorrier that he signed a new contract than I, but when a player wants to leave, let him and welcome him back when he visits with an opposing team. To boo him will be so yobbo!

    2. Please do not blame players that want to leave and the ex-players like Van Persie, Nasri,etc. Their careers are very short and they have to achieve something in a very short time, something that they can never do in Arsenal.

      The “seven years sticking up to his problems” is actually Arsenal’s responsibility as a club. If they did not need him anymore, they could sell him out, but they still needed him at that time.

      What we have to blame is Arsenal itself, it is run by profit-oriented people with lack of ambition. The only way to kick the corrupted board is by not coming to the stadium anymore, until they are forced to sell the club.

      Just be prepared, because drastic step will create drastic results. Arsenal could be relegated if no one comes to support them, and it could be necessary to remove all corrupted people from Arsenal.

      1. Of course, at the end of the day it’s just the fans that suffer. Apparently Kieran Gibbs loved the club, but after Wenger installed Ox at wing back, that was it for him. Why didn’t Wenger, who obviously knew what he was doing, just send him off to snog the Liverpool badge at home, while playing players who actually wanted to play for us?

    3. I wouldn’t stay Loyal to a sinking ship either. He was “loyal” for 7 yrs and most of his appearances where from the bench so I don’t fault his decision. I for one say, good for him, and may he be prosperous @ Liverpool and win trophies he wouldn’t have won under Wenger . Arsenal will still remain a joke under Wenger.

      WENGER OUT!!!!!!

      1. Terrible fans on here, I will stay loyal to Arsenal no matter who they choose at the helm. Sure I have stopped giving them financial support, whilst they so obviously don’t need it. But Arsenal Football Club is my only love in football and that will be the way it is until I die.
        I now fully expect Wenger, to rejuvenate the troops and push on with some sort of attempt to have a good season. If we are out of contention for 3 of the 4 competitions come January, he will cut his losses on those that can leave for free in May.
        IMO we have kept all our best starting x1, a few games at Rwb did nothing to make the ox the player we hoped he would be. The fact remains he has been disappointing and we have recouped all our money including his wages. We took a gamble on him, ok it didn’t pay off like we had hoped but he still has fa cup medals to show for his time with us and we haven’t spent a penny on him.
        One further plus is at least Andrew Mariner won’t have ID issues when he refs us know!!!

        This is no word of a lie. If everyone was fit. The ox would struggle to even make my bench. In my best team 3412
        Cech
        Mustafi Mertesacker Koscielny
        Bellerin Coquelin Cazorla Kolasinac
        Ozil Alexis
        Lacazette

        Ospina, Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Walcott, Welbeck Giroud.

        That’s team and bench, would win trophies. Getting them all fit is the major issue.

  2. No we didnt do well doing well would mean replacing him watching lemar score a screamer for france was just salt on the wound this team lost 4.0 at the wknd he had 4 days to do something and now we are a player less this is a joke im clinically depressed from supporting arsenal iv had enough i cant cope this is just like a big money scam and we are the fools i tought he had to splash big he had too and then nothing i dont know why i get my hopes up

    1. regardless of how you feel about Wenger today, no one wanted to see him become such a pathetic version of his former self…at first, it affected me deeply to watch this once proud man transform into a bumbling old fool…one might even call it tragic, if it weren’t for the prominent role he willingly played in his own demise…his countless lies, the disrespectful manner in which he treated the fans, the myriad of tactical blunders, the seemingly endless barrage of excuses aimed at everyone and everything besides himself, the amount of times he literally boasted about failing to sign a whole host of up and coming stars, for allowing business decisions to impact the selection process even if they negatively affected the product on the field, for selecting new arrivals, oft-injured bench players and lackeys as team captains in recent years, for not being able to make even the simplest of halftime adjustments, for his general ineptitude when it came to facing any of the top clubs, for allowing countless players to join our nearest rivals, for his cheeky Saurez bid, for not cultivating an environment where strong personalities could co-exist with the manager, for the shocking way in which he handled player contracts the past two summers, for the utter selfishness he displayed last spring regarding his own contract situation, for the way he used the press to undercut fan support for Sanchez before and following the Liverpool debacle last season, for his failures to replace either Van Persie or Viera and for the downright smarmy way he can look into a camera and continually spew the same tired cliches time and time again…fans of Arsenal, please don’t let this impostor enjoy a single minute while he still remains at this club… that way he might just feel a little of the pain and discomfort we have felt as a result of his actions or lack-thereof …beyond that, we must be ever vigilant in our attempts to rid this club our absentee landlord and his minions…maybe we should seriously examine how the Liverpool supporters contributed to the removal of their first american ownership group…whatever the case, whether you carry a sign, refuse to put anymore money in their bursting pockets or make the most impact-full decision by simply leaving your seat empty on game-day, always remain peaceful and on task…there will always be those who stray from this approach, but if the majority set a proper tone the fingers of blame will remain squarely at the rightful parties…now is the time for some “tough love”…for those of you who might struggle with the idea of openly protesting against your favoured club just try to remember that no matter what happens the targets of your derision will still be raking in millions of dollars on the backs of your blood, sweat & tears

  3. Arsenal, the club did not do well.
    Kroenke the owner did well (fat profit).
    AW the manager did well (fat bonus).

    1. At least, Wenger was honest when he said Sanchez and Oezil would be held to their contracts.
      Give him some kudos, even though it is difficult to do so.
      Lemar was always going to stay in Monaco this season. Even Liverpool failed in an attempt to sign him.
      Riess nelson is a better prospect than the OX and he is ready to step in as evidenced by his preseason performance.

  4. Good luck to the Ox, he left because Arsenal is toxic at the moment. He went to a club with more ambition and a better manager. Wenger is tactically finished.

    We are in some serious trouble, the club is a mess. Players don’t want to stay, players don’t even want to come to Arsenal, we are seriously a joke. Forget the Premier League, Arsenal will be competing with Everton, Southampton and West Brom this season.

    We need to try and force Kroenke out of the club ASAP.

  5. Its wenger it self who poisened ox, that he see ox as middlefield in the future. But he keep playing ox as winger, and lasted as wingback.
    Ox want play in middlefield, that it!
    He refuse chelse, cus he know chelsea will play him as wingback.
    It wenger fault grom begining

    1. Common guys…….Chamberlain got more opportunity than most of his teammates with similar talent……….Wenger unleashed him and Alexis at the same time………..guess who contributed more?………then the stupid moves of putting him in every game……just to convince him to stay……….he had his chance and contributed almost nothing……based what they paid for him………maybe his performance will be better at Liverpool ………I doubt it………cos under pressure he doesn’t keep things simple……he overdoes it………basically shaky confidence and inconsistent ……..good riddance for the Gunners and good luck dude……..

  6. Ox decision making is awfull. He runs quick with the ball, can take on people and creates great situations, but 9 times out of 10 his decision making is so bad, nothing comes out of it. in short, he is not a very clever player. Wenger played him because of the contract situation. had he stayed he would have returned to the bench.

  7. I pray to god wilshere has a good season, If anyone in this squad that would give a f*** its probably him….f*** you wenger you fraud!

  8. I dont understand why you guys are whining, Ox, the loudest player in the backroom, wants to leave, you can imagine how toxic certain times must be, now we only hv Sanchez and Ozil to deal with. But all in all, Wenger managed to clear some dead woods. Kept Sanchez our key player, and also managed to keep players who wants to play for this team, Giroud, Elneny, Walcott.

    All I can say, is that its a relief we dont lose anymore than Ox, lets focus on the season ahead. Weve won 1 match, lost 2, still along way to go.

  9. Ox, the non-productive , forever-high-potential player is now somebody else’s problem. And we got 40m for him. Sure we have spent more on him over the years plus we were offering 180k a week.
    Let’s see if Klopp will play him in the middle and let him loose the ball in dangerous positions.

    1. Don’t sound so chuffed at getting £40 Million, we won’t see the benefits of the money, it’s probably already paying for a new roof on a stadium in America somewhere and we’re a player down. I’d be chuffed if we’d got a like for like player in but as a fan we may as well have hired a boat and thrown 40 million into the sea.

  10. Lol OT. but just noticed no one gives a dam about Sanchez staying thats how bad it is …
    Will he makes things worse now or is it a good thing?

  11. Look. The window is closed now. We got rid of lots of dead wood. We kept our best players in Sanchez Ozil and added Lacazette. The toxicity of Ox is gone. We have 4 months til next window. We will be fine. We are a better team now that Ox is gone and many others.

    Time to get behind the team. Root for the best. We have a good attack and defense is more than just players. Defense is about communicating and playing as a unit. D can improve without adding played (although it would be good to add).

    We are going to be just fine. Step back and relax. Losing to Liverpool and stoke are just two games.

    Last year Chelsea has a rough start for a longer period and look what happened.

    1. Had we had any other manager than Wenger I’d draw some hope and inspiration from your words. However, I’ve seen this movie before. A shambolic transfer window followed by a shambolic start to the season, then we will improve somewhere along the season then in January we will get hammered by every team under the sun, probably concede 5 or 6 goals against some top team and then by the end of the season we will be crying for Wenger out. Did I miss something out?

    2. Are you serious step back and relax, how can we relax when our coach has clearly lost it, the way we lost is the problem, playing a right wingback at left wingback while a beast of a left wingback sits on the bench, leaving your record signing who knows how to score on the bench, throwing kos straight into centre back first game of the season while Mustafi sits on the bench playing Ramsey and Xhaka as a combination again knowing they provide no defensive cover whatsoever Ramsey have no positional sense and xhaka creates goals for the opposition, playing and keeping Sanchez who clearly wants to leave, Playing Holding at right back against Mane when you know he is going to struggle for pace. and many more tactical errors you dont expect from a supposed proffesional coach .these are the things that need to change

  12. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t start. The bench is very important for success. Liverpool will benefit from his experience and quality. You won’t win the PL without a strong bench.

    OX was one of our very best squad players. Wenger used him in a wrong way. He could have been a starter if Wenger had used him better.

    It sucks that we sold him to our rivals who were already better than us. Arsenal have decreased in quality because of this sale and Liverpool have increased.

    Also what good is the money if we didn’t use it. We could have got Mahrez or Seri at least. I said it from the beginning. Lacazette and Kolsanic were very good acquisitions but NOT enough to get us back in the Top 4. Every summer Wenger keeps us short of ambition. Pathetic.

    An absolute disaster of a window for a crucial season. We had to make it back to the Top 4. How can we do it when United, Spurs, Liverpool, City Chelsea are ALL better than us?

    Thanks Kroenke and Wenger. We will be very lucky if we get 6th place

  13. We didn’t do well because the money received from the sale was not reinvested back into the team as per usual but we’ll be led to believe that keeping Sanchez is like a new signing, we’ll also be told we are ambitious as we bid a huge fee for Thomas Lemar even though they almost certainly knew he didn’t want to move to Arsenal so its makes no difference whether they bid 92 million or 202 million he was never coming. Wenger the board and the owner are blinded by greed we could have swapped the Ox with Sakho and still got some cash but no Wenger wouldn’t have got his fat bonus! A blind man can see how this will play out, we will win 2 or 3 games and we’ll get told this team is the best team Wenger has ever had before it all unravels again, come may Wenger and Ivan the terrible will sell us the usual pitch of how ambitious we are and how we can buy any player on the planet then the club will take 7 weeks to get one deal done we’ll be linked with every player in world football and next September Wenger will come out and say hes happy with the business hes done. Jesus its the same crap and lies season after season! Our club is being ruined all because one deluded Frenchman can’t accept hes too old and has nothing left in the tank, its not our fault his personal life doesn’t exist.. If hes not forced out of the club hes gonna be here for a long time who really believes the 2 year deal he signed is gonna be his last? Cos we all know its not, we are the only club in the world where our manager decides his own future its become Wenger is more important than the fans. This is the season we have to wake up we need change, I don’t care if we win 40 games in a row the club needs a change in direction, Wenger has an excellent fa cup record but 3 league titles and zero European trophies in 21 years isn’t all that impressive when you think about it.

    1. That’s the perfect message GoonerKev84. It’s exactly how I feel about things. Cheers for posting that.

    2. Keep your expectations low……..and you will more than likely be surprised………who expected Arsenal to dorminate and beat Chelsea in the FA cup?……cos of our lowered expectations…….maybe we will make it at the end……there is enough talent in this team……..at least more than Leicester………….we need a perfect storm……….Wenger at his professional……..non emotional…….and rational best………and a really disgustingly hardworking team…………….very possible……

      1. So difficult to read your posts mate. Use correct punctuation and you will get proper impact. Just saying . . . .

    3. Get a life and stop whining. We have a team, not a bad one at that. Although this may come as a major nono to most here, what would you do if you were a top player like Lemar or Mbappe and you were considering being transferred to Arsenal? Would you reject it because of a manager that is respected worlwide or would you be worried about joining the club which probably has the most toxic fan base in Europe.
      If you want change, don’t buy any tickets and go and support a big spender team.
      Just one word of caution…only one of Man U, City and Celsey can win…big decisions 😀

  14. I expect this season to be an absolute, unprecedented disaster.
    And I look forward to the grief and abuse that will be heading towards Wenger.
    No one deserves abuse more than he does.
    WENGER OUT !

  15. AS ARSENAL FUNS WERE R TIRED OF SUPPORTING ATEAM SEASON TO SEASON NO CHANGE NOW ITS EVEN WORSE WERE R GOING BACK WRDS OTHER TEAMS WITH GOOD PLAYERS STILL SPENT ALOT TO GET MORE QUALITY PLAYERS HOW IWISH AZIL,SANCHEZ THEY GO TOO WE NEED TO GIVE EMIRATES ABREAK WITH OUT ATTENDING TILL THE BOARD EN WENGER LEAVES

  16. I’m glad Ox has gone,i never rated him and have no time for players who turn their backs to the ball in open play.

  17. Well I suppose one beneficial side-effect of losing Ox might be forcing Wenger into playing Kolasinac at LWB and Bellerin at RWB which makes WAY more sense then Bellerin on the left and Kola on the freaking bench!

  18. I’m personally gutted he left, I really rate Ox. I think we should have sold Sancez earlier and pushed Ox into his vacant slot. While Sanchez is undoubtedly the better player, I think Ox has the potential to be just as good. He didn’t get enough of a run in a position that suited him. That being said, £40m for a player who’s not been played as often as he should, who’s unfortunately not progressed as far along as he should and was in his final year is fantastic. I think next season, maybe the season after we’ll see an Ox that we should have seen while at Arsenal. I wish him well, but not too well. COYG

  19. Ox is even better than Bellerin at wing back role….Ox has history of getting injured, so I think is great selling him off even though he was one of the most valuable players in Arsenal team, far better than that useless Theo Walcott…….Its time we Unleash Nelson the wonder boy……

  20. Looking at this situation dispassionately, we actually have a better squad than last season.
    We did not lose any of our star players, and we have added two quality players in Kolasinac, Alexander Laca, and we have Nelson covering Chamberlain’s departure. Jack Wilshire and Chambers have also return as squad members. I strongly believe that if Jack can stay fit 70% of the season Arsenal will finish in the top 4 all things equal- Wenger factor.
    Let’s support and encourage our club.
    Wenger and Kroenka would surely leave sooner or later, Arsenal would remain forever. COYG!!!!!!!
    Arsenal till I die.

  21. i would rather see ox go (to wherever) than see reiss nelson miss his much deserved opportunity to carve a future at arsenal. i don’t share any disappointment seeing ox go out if the end result is that nelson comes in. between these two one has talent and weighs in with goals while the other flatters to deceive and offers little in terms of a goal threat, his stats are appalling, he’s over rated.

  22. Graham Souness said last season after one particular maulling that Ox just doesnt have a professional approach to his job. In the tunnel before th game he was filmed laughing and joking with the opposition players. Souness said you’re supposed to be going out on that pitch with only one thing on your mind: Win at all costs. Laughing and joking 2 monutes before kick off isnt the right mood set. I agree. He has never played like his life depended on it, he’s never retaliated or shown aggression.. We dont need that. We want players as passionate as Vieira, Wrighty, Henry….all the rest can f* off..

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