He was starting consistently for Arsenal and now he is on the bench for a team that might not be any better.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain | Set to miss the 2018/19 season
- Thread starter Gandalf Greyhame
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
This is looking like such a bad move for all concerned.
Except Arsenal.
Yup. Laughing all the way to the bank.
First time I've been genuinely impressed with Wenger's transfer business, pulled the wool over Klopp's eyes with this one
I'm genuinly non-plussed why Liverpool bought him. Is there any coherent explanation?
Which one of you buggers wore this to buy him?
Pretty strange that you can actually buy this in the club shop.
Pretty strange that you can actually buy this in the club shop.
I don't think Wenger deserves a great deal of credit. He was talking about Chamberlain staying earlier in the window and even started him against us at Anfield.
But then managed to get £40 million for an average player who was running down his contract and wanted to leave. That deserves credit.
Hence why he was able to ask for such a ludicrously high price...
'No he's got a future here, no he's not for sale, this will be the season of the Ox.....£40m you say? Fine! You've forced my hand'
The ox is the perfect midfielder for klopp: lots of running, no thinking.
Wenger offered him a contract worth 180k/week to stay. He's just lucky Liverpool are even more stupid.
Yeah exactly...wait.
In all seriousness it really was a daft transfer. He'll go even further down the pecking order once Lallana is back.
If he's worth 40m, Lingard is worth at least twice that 
Emotionally. Hence the biting of Chiellini was a flashback reaction to that Crystal Palace debacle.
Arsenal offered him a new contract.
Maybe you are right. He has bitten so many people in his life i can't remember everyone.Where was that offer reported? Unless Wenger or someone at the club has confirmed it I have a hard time believing it. 180k a week would make Ox our highest earner by far, everyone else is under 150k. No way Wenger gives that to someone who's never scored more than 6 league goals in a season.
Wenger is also all about squad harmony, its one thing to pay Sanchez and Ozil far more than the rest of the other players. But imagine giving Chamberlain 180k and going into contract negotiations with the rest of the squad. Majority of them, who have scored and assisted more than Chamberlain by far, will demand at least parity.
They might all be professionals but imagine how the likes of Giroud, Ramsey and Koscielny would feel, knowing that they have performed week in and week out for the team. Then seeing someone who's contributed very little to the team in terms of goals and assists making almost double what they are on. At least Rooney had the past six or seven years of high level performances to justify his wage at the time, even though it turned out to be a colossal mistake. Ox has done nothing to justify that type of wage offer and giving it to him, may have negatively affected morale. Hard to believe that Wenger didn't come to a similar conclusion.
That story reeked to me of Ox's agent trying to: 1. Make it appear that Ox is a lot more valuable than he is and 2. Endear his client to Liverpool fans, by demonstrating that his client "rejected" a large offer to go and play for them.
Moreover why would he reject 180k to go and accept 120k or so (I could be wrong) from Liverpool? The smart thing to do would be to say "Well Arsenal offered me 180k, so I want 150k to sign here, because wages are increasing and I'm a valuable young English talent." or something to that effect. No agent worth his salt is going to arrange a move for his client where he earns 60k less than he could make somewhere else, when said client is now entering his prime footballing years.
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See the poster above.
Very doubtful of a) the salary apparently offered b) if a new deal was even discussed
I'm fairly sure there's a quote from Wenger early on in the summer where he states that he expects Chamberlain to stay and sign a new deal.
I'm not 100% on that, it's just something I think I saw somewhere.
It was reported by both telegraph and sky amongst other sources. You're never going to get Wenger or the club confirm a contract offer.
Got to agree with JSArsenal here. There's no way someone as miserly as Wenger breaks his wage bracket for bloody Ox.
I'm not doubting that a contract offer was made or that Wenger wanted Ox to stay. I just don't think the offer was 180k a week, nor do I believe that Chelsea offered him 220k to become Chelsea's top earner as reported by the Daily Star. With Chamberlain's poor goal output and injury record, no way we offered him that. He wasn't even a guaranteed starter for us and Wenger isn't paying that amount of money for someone to sit on the bench some weeks. It just felt like agent work to me, similar to how players are linked to numerous other clubs while locked in contract negotiations with their current club.
Moreover, a week before the Liverpool game Wenger was talking about loyalty and how much someone like Chamberlain owes the club. An emotional appeal then offering to make him our highest earner doesn't correlate to me. If anything it sounded like Wenger wanted Chamberlain to stay at a reasonable new wage out of loyalty and love for the club.
I heard back in August that we'd offered him £120k per week with a guaranteed pay rise at the end of the season should we make it back into the CL and if he hit his bonuses next season the contract was worth up to £180k per week hence the reporting of that figure.
I think it was David Ornstein who mentioned this on the radio but I'm not certain on that. I heard it secondhand from a mate so take it with a pinch of salt.
I find that really hard to believe.
I actually think he's a decent winger, but this move hasn't worked out at all for him yet.
Don't see him playing centrally ever for Liverpool. Henderson is the captain, he'll play. They've bought Keita for next season onwards. Lallana, Coutinho (if he's still there), Can etc are all ahead of him for the CM role.
Don't see him playing centrally ever for Liverpool. Henderson is the captain, he'll play. They've bought Keita for next season onwards. Lallana, Coutinho (if he's still there), Can etc are all ahead of him for the CM role.
I think I've said this before, but this really seems like a weird transfer for everyone except Arsenal. Oxlade won't get much playing time unless he improves big time and he's probably the last kind of player we needed. Those 35-40m could easily have been spent on a quality striker, a decent goalie or a cb better than Lovren. I mean, Arsenal got Lacazette for 40m for instance, right?
I'm hoping Klopp has some kind of master plan to make him worth it. I fear though, that we'll look at this transfer next summer and compare it to Caroll, Benteke etc.
I'm hoping Klopp has some kind of master plan to make him worth it. I fear though, that we'll look at this transfer next summer and compare it to Caroll, Benteke etc.
He's been here for like two lunch breaks.
People really are much too quick to write players off these days.
People really are much too quick to write players off these days.
The point is that Oxlade hasn't shown anything of note the past years at Arsenal. So why did Liverpool think splashing 40m on him was a good idea? I know he's mainly for depth but surely there were others available for depth, players with probably a better injury record as well.
And only played about half an hour of PL football thus far.
I think you'll find that he's played a lot of PL football. Years of it. And he's been distinctly underwhelming since leaving Southampton.
The post I quoted was talking about his time at Liverpool.
But go ahead, be deliberately obtuse.
How exactly am I being obtuse? He underwhelmed at Arsenal in the PL. It's hardly surprising that he is being criticised for continuing to underwhelm (and let's face it, that's probably an understatement) in the PL during his brief appearances for Liverpool. You really believe that because he is wearing a different coloured shirt he deserves a clean slate?
Because you knew I was talking about his time at Liverpool.
He's made a few brief appearances - exactly. Far too early to be calling him a flop, simply because he hasn't actually had the opportunity to show otherwise yet.
He has played in the PL for years. Why should I disregard that simply because he's now playing for Liverpool?
None of the attacking players looked great but he managed to look considerably worse.
Credit where due. He beat an opponent in full sprint once in the first minutes of the game.
If he can add another one or two scenes like that during the remaining season he might just get his own youtube compilation.
If he can add another one or two scenes like that during the remaining season he might just get his own youtube compilation.
Blinder by Wenger. Even player Ox ahead of Bellerin in the weeks prior to increase his value.
Biggest match of the season. Bench. Get used to it.
Better than any of our attackers today