Oxlade Chamberlain may split opinions in the Arsenal fan base, but could Arsenal be seriously considering letting the English winger go to one of our Premier League rivals?
Over the course of the summer I have seen many call for Arsene Wenger to bite the bullet and call it a day on Alex Oxlade Chamberlain’s Arsenal career. Many have argued that the Ox has failed to develop and live up to the potential that surrounded him when he first came to the Gunners, much like his current teammate Theo Walcott. Injuries may have been a part of the reasoning for his stagnation in recent seasons, but it cannot be argued that when he is fit, his inconsistency on the pitch is the main factor for why he doesn’t get a good run of games and why he hasn’t developed to the expected potential.
Chamberlain’s stats for goals and assists are awful for a winger at a club that is supposedly meant to be challenging both in domestic and European completions. If Chamberlain wants to be a regular stater at Arsenal, then he needs to improve on his goalscoring and his creative ability. For such an important spot on the pitch, where goals and assists need to be coming from in order to win matches, The Ox simply just doesn’t cut it.
But even with this in mind, I don’t think it’s time to cut Chamberlain’s Arsenal career, especially not to sell him to Manchester City as the Daily Telegraph is suggesting. The Ox is having a good pre-season, showing promise signs in both the game vs Lens and the friendly against the MLS all stars. The issue is that Chamberlain also had an impressive pre-season last year, but failed to impress over the course of the campaign, so it leaves a question of doubt about whether he will maintain such form for the domestic campaign. There is plenty of competition for places across the Arsenal midfield, so he will have to show that he is the pick of the bunch to maintain a regular spot in the side.
Whatever you think of the Ox, I’m sure you’ll agree that selling him to Man City would be a mistake. The Ox still has potential if he can get his head in the game and I think a loan move would be good for him. My only concern is that even though we have plenty of midfielders at the club, in terms of natural wide men, we actually lack numbers and so I think Chamberlain will get a good run of games if he can remain fit. I really do hope that the Englishman shows us what he is capable of and gets back on track towards reaching his potential, because unlike Walcott, it’s not too late for Chambo at Arsenal!
By AH
sorry but if they table a 35-40m bid id take it in a flash
39 quid would probably be enough.
I wonder who’s thumbing this down. That money could be used to get Mahrez. Not that Arsenal would even spend the money either way…
Its being thumbed down because £39 might buy a meal for two but would not go very far towards mahrez transfer fee.
Please ignore my above comment, i misread what RSH was replying to.
Walcott FIRST!!!
I’m sorry but that counter attack we had when Campbell was wide open to make it 2-0 against the MLS all stars and he did what he does best reminded me too much of past failures.
I pray the OX gets it together this season hopefully lasting most of the duration…
Loan his ass out and leave Campbell as backup (if we get a a WC winger)..sell walcott to city, i don’t care!…he’s past it, there’s no way he’ll come back to haunt us, he ain’t no RVP or Adebayor
Crewe want Walcott
for 3 quid.
Paying over the odds 🙂
1. Ox has the talent. He was the ONLY gunner to play in every game that season prior to the injury that derailed his career. Fans forget this somehow. There is a REASON Man City want him. He is always taking on defenders deep for cut-backs into the box. Who else does that for Arsenal except Sanchez?
But any ridiculous offer from City MUST be considered of course. I like Ox but business is business in transfer season.
How about off-loading Walcott. Give him away if need be. And then use his ridiculous salary to get a decent midfielder. I can just see the Arsenal squad this season with WALCOTT waiting on the bench to do more of absolutely nothing.
2. Zlatan has declared ManU will now win everything (because he is there of course). According this egomaniacal a##h@le, HE is the reason for any future ManU success. (It will have nothing to do with the Billion they spent on players over the last 3 years)
Any definition of the word “egotistical” must include the name Zlatan.
Does it matter he was fit for first part of the season? He was also playing horribly during that time as well, he was a huge underperformer. Ox can do a lot of tricks that make him look skilled but he has close to zero end product. 100 EPL appearances, 7 goals. That’s downright horrendous. Ox is another English talent that has yet to ever perform for the club. Let’s not pretend his Arsenal career has been positive when overall it’s been underwhelming. I doubt fans would have nearly as much patience if Ox were from a different country. Englishmen always seem to get a slight pass, and Wenger definitely enables this too. Ox is quickly becoming the new Theo unless he starts to turn it around. But even Theo has had good seasons for us despite the trash talk he gets.
and I misread your first sentence, thought you were talking about last season, yes he was very good when he first came. But it’s the same thing with Wilshere honestly. How long do you hold into these constantly injured, and constantly under performing players? We can only have so many. In my opinion, Ox’s big chance was last season where he had a ton of playing time, but was largely poor.
Wilshere to Bradford Park Avenue
for a pack of Lambert ‘n Butlers 🙂
OX is too direct he needs to improve! Don’t support selling him now! But please let’s Walcot go and bring in mehrez even if we don’t get a striker just merhez is okay
Henry quit his U-18 coaching position. And then he immediately offers advice on tactics to Wenger. He does not want the coaching job but now wants to advise Wenger???
Henry’s advice includes scrapping the LW position completely to put Sanchez next to Giroud. HE also wants Wenger to put Ramsey in the #10 slot. (He does NOT mention the obvious that this would mean ousting Ozil).
Regardless of what you think about these ideas, it is clear that Henry prefers the spotlight of the EPL (perhaps starting as a Wenger assistant and then taking over?) versus the day-to-day, no glamour, hard work position of U-18 football coaching. Big stars demand big spotlights. Henry is no exception here.
And now many fans think there is something wrong with Arsenal? Seriously??
Arsenal gave Henry the coaching position even though he had no real coaching experience. This would have been perfect for him as an introduction to coaching. And yet he throws it away. Clearly Henry does not want to coach. Henry just wants the media attention that goes with EPL popularity.
OK. Hit me with it.
Arsenal were helping Henry to gain his coaching badges and according to reports he wasn’t getting paid for it.
Wenger got (rightfully) stroppy with Henry because of his continuous, unsavory comments made towards him and his players, whilst working for Sky sports.
Wenger gave Henry an ultimatum and Henry choose the £4 million annual salary of Sky sports instead.
Henry still needs to gain another coaching badge or two, before he can manage a football team and yes he does want to manage Arsenal fc … but in the distance future.
Who cares if he was getting paid or not. Arsenal gave him a great opportunity but his ego would not let him do the work without enough media and fan glory.
The Ox has no end product, whats the point in having a player who can out sprint a defender only to put in a bad cross or pass?
His injury prone!
He also has issues with confidence, concentration and often goes into a sulky – feeling sorry for himself mood, when he makes mistakes!
How many times has he given the ball away that lead to us conceding a goal?… Too many, for those who remember.
Yes, he still is very young at 22 and no doubt that he has the potential but i am afraid that he won’t progress under wenger, as time has already shown us that.
You could say the same for Walcott and maybe Chambers too?
Loan the Ox out or sell him with a buy back clause.
You make good points about Ox finishing product and his injuries.
Injuries are a difficult issue because you don’t know if it is just past back luck or a genuine proneness to injury.
But the finishing is an issue that must be addressed and fixed by coaching IF Ox wants to continue to play at a hight level. I always said he needs a coach to work with him full time on techniques of crossing and shooting. His crosses are unreliable. Shooting issues should be more easily fixable, however. He just needs to learn to keep the ball DOWN.
In the end I believe his upside outweighs the negatives. I could be wrong of course. I once believed Walcott could fix his issues. I was obviously wrong.
Relax
OX is only 22 years old
He has time to improve
Problem is with Theo who is 27 years old, makes £140,000 per week and is very average
His best season was 2012-13 with 14 league goals and 21 total goals but all his other seasons made between 2-9 goals. He isn’t terrible. He is fast and scores sometimes but not worth £140,000 per week and we need better
We probably all said the same thing about Walcott when he was only 22 … and now look at him ? ?
Jack Wheelchair, Walcott, Ramsey and the Ox all had a one season wonder at some stage of their Arsenal careers.
And the evidence is clear as daylight that it is not working or progressing, with them.
Ross Barkley is English and he would be an excellent replacement for one or two of our English core… make it two! ? A Swap deal, which two would you guys swap for Barkley?
@Fatboy,
Is it me or would Barkley make an excellent CM? With his 189 cm stature he would be stronger in the mid-midfield rather than in attacking role. Besides one of his best perks is is shooting and he isn’t really good at creating.
His improving with each season, mate.
I Rate him higher than all of our English core player’s.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he scored and assisted more goals than all of ours (EC) put together, last season. ?
Haha, City don’t want him. He literally scores no more than twice a season. Ox is barley worth more than Ibe at the moment. At least he’s still young and has time to improve unlike a certain winger… I’m sorry, “striker”.
How would that make him worse than Jesus Navas who has scored like once in the past 3 seasons? At least OX would be fill their English quota!
The rumour mill have run out of midfielders and striker’s to link us to…. So give a big hand to the latest defenders that we are supposedly after:
Johnny Evans ? and Bruno Peres ? ??? ?
This is easy-
You sell if we can get a good replacement. I’d happily sell Walcott and Ox if we could get Drexler in.
Cambell is hugely under-rated, and under-used. Hope to see more of him this season. And Iwobi has great breakthrough season-
So I’d happily sell 2, to get 1 good one
How the h*** can opinions about Ox be splitted???
Except someone who is blind …everybody can see that he’s just a waste of time!!
If is was my call I would pay him to leave – BELIVE ME 🙂
There’s a club that actually want to buy Ox????? WOW 😀
This is a chance to get ridoff the deadwood….SELL HIM!!!