Both Arsene Wenger and Robin van Persie have been full of praise for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but are also keen to protect the youngster as the hype machine gets into gear.
The 18 year old, who signed from Southampton in the summer for a fee which could rise to £15m, has caught the eye in recent games, and while his quality is obvious, it’s early days in what promises to be a fine career.
From a footballing point of view, Arsenal skipper van Persie, is keen to ensure that too much expectation doesn’t hamper his teammate’s development.
“Alex is a big prospect”, he said. “Everyone is enjoying watching him, I do, you do and he brings something extra to the game and people just love it.
“But don’t put too much pressure on him. You always have periods when you are young when you have really high highs, then you go up and down until you balance it a bit better.
“He will have ups and will have periods when he is not playing so well, so my advice is to be aware of it and be patient.”
Meanwhile, with Jack Wilshere having missed all of this season so far, Arsene Wenger is aware of the dangers of over-playing players at a young age.
While the manager certainly has to take some of the blame, it was a combination of Wilshere’s outstanding performances, an injury hit squad which made it difficult for the manager to rotate, and Jack’s willingness to play through the injury when he should probably have told the medical staff how much it was troubling him that brought about the current problem.
With just 15 league games left this season, Oxlaide-Chamberlain won’t be as physically tested as Wilshere, but Wenger is cautious all the same.
“That is what happened to us last year with Wilshere, it was exactly the same”, said the boss.
“At the start of the season you think: ‘I will play him 20 games, maybe 25’, but after they deliver a performance, they play 45 and then they play for the national team and then they get injured.
“It is very difficult to manage because people understand very quickly what kind of influence the players have and you want to win the game so you play them.”
“I don’t know where I have seen it, but 70% of the players who play very early in many, many games have stress fractures. In England the intensity of a game is higher.”
With a Euro 2012 place hardly a long-shot, Wenger’s management of the youngster will be interesting. He’s got to try and balance the needs of the team – improved when The Ox plays – with the need to ensure he stays free from injury.
Whatever you think about the manager, that’s not an easy task.
PROTECT THE OX!!! don’t let him to Walcott(football-wise) or Wilshere(fitness-wise).
It’s good to know they are careful with this one , and the player himself still ‘keeps his feet on the ground’ ,He won’t think he is Maradona after a few good games .
Now it’s up to the fans
Protect the Ox from many dangers and you will receive great happiness.
-Arsenal Proverb
First thought on seeing ‘protect the Ox’ is…from who? I think Lions feed on Oxes and the only one thats got a mane in Arsene is Chamack. Just drawing insights, nothing more.
This kid is great and fantastic to watch – he seems to be a quick decision maker and I’m really impressed with his passing and dribbling, some of the cross field passes are magnificent. Ye, he makes mistakes they all do, but his heart is in it, track back tackling and all. Bright future I think…
Great prospect and has shown that he presently is a real danger for other teams. Sadly we need him to continue and arsenal being arsenal will end up relying on him far to much as that 4th place either slips away or becomes nearer. If our form drops again can we afford to rest him? If rvp got injured would arsene still be tempted to rest him then and play the non existant park. Would the fans suffer chamakh again? Bloggs makes a great point about walcott and the fact that could he deliver the type of crosses that chamakh… Read more »
I think the other way round.
The holy Ox will protect us.
Something something golden calf blah-bity-blah false idol etc. etc.
it’s going to be difficult to protect him when we didn’t strengthen the squad over january
Well, with Gervinho back and Arshavin still here (incidentally, he’s a player that will benefit greatly from full-backs returning imo) and with Benayoun (know he’s still not popular, but he’s useful to come in for a game or two) an option I think he’ll still get the necessary rest.
Heihaci. Exactly mate. I think the ox could become another victim of our reluctance to strengthen in the same way as Ramsey has. We have so many tough games coming up and are still in 3 competitions. The squad does not have the quality in depth to be able to do all 3 justice. Ide love to win the fa cup champions league is beyond us if we are honest but I think it’s vital we get 4 th. so who knows what the solution is.
Have some faith, mate. As long as we’re still in the Champions League we still have a chance to win it. When Liverpool won in 2005 & were runners up in 2007, they were a fairly mediocre team. And Bayern 2 years ago wasn’t a powerhouse world beater. We have our days (like this past weekend and against Barca at home last year). If we can string together a couple of good outings we could absolutely win it all. To me, faith is part of being a fan.
Would love to see the Ox, Wilshere, Frimpong, Gibbs and Coquelin all playing together. The future is very bright indeed at Arsenal
Pervert 🙂
Doh!
Come on, it’s not like he said it would be good to see Ox, Wilshere, Frimmers, and Gibbs all playing with Coq..
That could be slightly wrong.
Wonder if this is a thinly veiled announcement that the ox is only playing till Gervinho comes back from Africa?
I wouldn’t mind if that was the case. I think most of our injuries stem from lack of squad depth, case in point Wilshere. Rotation is one of the keys to less injuries as well as motivation for players to improve. It’s got to be good for them to know that their first team place is not nailed down. Competition is a great motivator.
Do we have a song for the Ox yet?
To be fair, I’m shit at this, but howabout “The only way is Ox” to “The only way is up”?
Nevermind..
Agreed Spooner mate, you are shit at this. 7/10 for effort though.
Harsh MC, but judging on the below we’re about on a par. Besides, I thought everyone secretly liked a bit of gay pop.. No?
Taxi!!
Damn right spooner, I’m all for a bit of gay pop, I’ve seen both pet shop boys and erasure in concert. Its good to let the gay man inside us out every now and then isnt it.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has the same number of syllables as Samir Nasri so with a vacant song and a name that fits it…
Totally agree with RVP and Arsene especially. My fear is the huge amount of expectations that are gonna be lumped on the Ox. You can already see the “savior” tag being applied to him both at Arsenal and England. He needs to continue his footballing education at a pace that will allow him to get better and stay healthy. Running him ragged like Arsenal & England did to Jack last season will on end up doing him harm. And the psychological effects of creating a superstar before they make themselves into one (the way Theo was done) can potentially ruin… Read more »
Can I embarass myself now? To be sung at Arsene in an ironic way when the Ox is playing well, to Primal Screams ‘Rocks’.
Get the Ox off, get the Ox off Arsene.
Sorry!
I see two dangers:
1. Useless Wenger overplays him and destroys his fitness (see Wilshire).
2. Once his career really takes off (and it will) the media do a ‘Gazza’ on him and hound him into alcoholism / drugs etc.
The Ox has to be carefully looked after now – just like Giggs was at United.
becoming Giggs is worse
[…] to leave Oxlade-Chamberlain on the pitch when he’s having a good game and yet we also want to blame the manager for overplaying him and the inevitable injury that causes. We want the club to buy three world class players for every position and we also don’t want […]
Ideally you’d want to protect AOC as much as possible-but it’s not possible with the squad we have,unless Arshavin suddenly remembers that he’s a professional footballer.
And the Ox could give Gervinho some tips on finishing,unbelievably he seems to miss more chances for Ivory Coast than he does for us!!!
the ox has amazing talent and Arsene needs to realise that his contribution to the club could potentially be massive, im talking the next Cesc