According to the Daily Mail, Arsenal pay Southampton £10,000 every time Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain plays more than 20 minutes for the Gunners.
It’s in his contract, an apparent remnant of frantic negotiations between the two clubs ahead of the midfielder’s move to the Emirates back in 2011.
It’s this apparent financial burden which is the reason Arsene Wenger waits for the 70-minute mark to pass before utilising the England international.
Well so argues Neil Ashton, the Mail’s Football News correspondent, who cites ten examples of the Ox taking to the field late in the day:
“Incredibly a trend emerged, with Wenger bringing him off the bench after 72 minutes (v Stoke), 73 minutes (Liverpool), 72 minutes (Coventry), 65 minutes (Norwich), 76 minutes (Fulham), 86 minutes (Tottenham), 67 minutes (Swansea), 73 minutes (West Ham), 71 minutes (Swansea), and 75 minutes (Reading).”
We don’t want to insult your intelligence dear reader so we’ll assume you know you can set your watch by a Wenger substitution. We’ll also gloss over the fact that Chamberlain until last week, when he turned 20, was a teenager competing with fellow internationals for a place in the starting line-up at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
So let’s dissect this weird little conspiracy theory…
Since moving to North London, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has made 60 appearances for Arsenal including 33 starts and 27 as a subtitute.
Ignoring the fact some of those appearances might have been less than 20 minutes, that’s a maximum figure of £600,000 that Arsenal would owe Southampton. It’s hardly a massive sum over the course of two years in an era of big-money contract add-ons is it?
What’s more, to put it in perspective if Chamberlain played 50 games a season for the five years of his initial contract the maximum Arsenal would have to pay is £2.5 million.
The deal to bring Chamberlain to the Emirates was reported by the BBC as being for £12 million plus £3 million in add-ons.
Presumably the remaining £500,000 is for landmark achievements such as international appearances (tick) and (super lolz) Arsenal winning trophies. It’s fair to assume these payments do not continue ad infinitum…indeed the terms of Chamberlain’s new deal, signed alongside the other Brits last term, probably drew a line under the payments.
So basically the crux of the story by Neil Ashton is, shock horror, Arsenal pay for a player adhering to the terms and conditions of the contract set out when he moved.
Ashton doesn’t deny that Arsenal made the payments, he even says so in the article, although he does amusingly infer that Southampton invoice the Gunners accountants on a per-match basis like a work experience kid trying to claim travel expenses…
I suspect it doesn’t work like that Neil.
Ashton’s article also talks about Arsenal’s failed pursuit of Wilfried Zaha claiming Wenger’s dithering saw us lose out to Manchester United. Perhaps, but weirdly it chooses not to make a similar suggestion about United when they lost out to us over Chamberlain. Maybe those add-ons made the difference?
It’s football. You win some, you lose some…the transfer market isn’t as simple as working for the Daily Mail.
There’s also some criticism of our use of Harvard-based analysts who Neil seems to think dictate everything Arsenal do in the transfer market. Presumably they’re on holiday at the moment? And the usual training ground tittle-tattle of personalities clashing up and down the training hierarchy. All a bit ‘meh’.
At a time when Arsenal and Arsene Wenger are getting a battering from all quarters, for perfectly acceptable reasons, this really is a bizarre and pathetically shallow attempt to stick the knife in.
I suspect Neil has been saving this story for a while.
What a zinger it is.
Knob
Unfortunately it looks like Southampton won’t be getting any money over next few months
God love a bit of gallows humour
Have to say this is one of the most ridiculous clausese I have ever seen. it has to end at some point right?, contrary to Neil ashton being an arsehole this is actually an eye opener for me, never knew such a thing existed. b
There’s absolutely nothing remarkable about the clause, assuming that part of the story is correct. It’s well known that transfer deals routinely include payments to the selling club based on appearances (either on a per game or milestone basis). That’s why you frequently see press reports with statements to the effect that “the deal is worth an initial £8 million, potentially rising to £10 million depending on appearances”. The only notable aspect of Ashton’s discussion of the Ox clause is his assertion that Wenger is timing his substitutions in order that he doesn’t have to pay the extra £10,000. That’s… Read more »
Especially seeing as for half of those quoted substitution times the Ox would be playing just over 20 minutes (guessing an average of 3 minutes added time). Hardly seems like Wenger would bring him on in the 67th minute if he was desperately trying to save 10k…
The moral of the story is that, with an over-active imagination and some well-chosen turns of phrase, you can make anything sound sinister. REVEALED: HOW ARSENAL HAVE TO PAY SANTI CAZORLA £70,000 EVERY WEEK – EVEN WHEN HE DOESN’T PLAY A SINGLE MINUTE OF FOOTBALL “Arsenal’s accounting boffins are forking out tens of thousands of pounds every week to keep diminutive midfielder Santi Cazorla happy – even when he doesn’t play. “Sportsmail has learned that, because of a complicated clause in his contract nutted out last year by a battery of lawyers and accountants, Cazorla is entitled to receive £70,000… Read more »
How many clauses have you seen?
How many professional footballer’s contracts have you read?
Hmmm… I dont really believe that that’s why wenger brings him on that late and i cant say i disbelieve it either. But all the same, i want WENGER OUT!!!
We have more than enough real and immediate problems to deal with.
We don’t need no education from these biased, opportunistic journalists.
I read Ashton’s article this morning and couldn’t believe the dribble that came out of that mans mouth. I’m sure Wenger is far more concerned about the match result rather than having to pay southhampton a measly 10,000 pounds.
I love how he also cites games where the Ox got on in the 67th or so minute. Apparently, Wenger can’t count to 20.
That article is so pathetic, I mean, our summer transfer window is an astounding success compared to it.
Big deal, NB52 spends 10k on turtle necks and lingerie….every other day.
Dribble from the mouth? wow, we should sign him asap.
Today’s headline “WENGER SPLURGES 10,000 POUNDS BY GETTING THE TEAM SHEET WRONG”
It is reported that Wenger made a costly error in judgement when he mistakenly chose to start Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain against Fenerbahce. It can now be revealed that he would have saved that money if he had taken Oxlade-Chamberlain off before the 20-minute mark, but through his well-documented stubbornness he refused to do so, even when Stan Kroenke called him direct from Americaland and begged him to act.”
Did you mean ‘drivel’? No, on seconds thoughts, you were right…
although most of it is rubbish, i do agree with the point that it is wrong for arsene to have the final say over transfers, thus delaying them and letting other clubs come in, as much as i dont like it we should get in a director of football to finally replace david dein, whos transfer nous we havent properly replaced
The answer to all this is BRING BACK DEIN!!!
The club need him back desperately.
Darren?
whys is it wrong for the manager of the club, who knows his squad inside and out to have the last say on transfers?
because he’s the manager and it shouldn’t be his job. in the same way it would be wrong for the technical director/director of football to have the final say on team selection for a match. each role in an organization has a scope of work. in general, you do not do more or less than your scope of work. doesn’t arsene have enough to do with focusing on training, preparing the team, developing strategy/tactics, etc?
We don’t have a Technical Director. Does that mean we can’t make transfers? You have a very rigid view on what a manager can or cannot do. Is it not conceivable that we might trust Wenger to know whether he wants a player or not. He is a Manager, not just a coach. Managers have traditionally made decisions about who they want in their teams and then sent people out to work out the details. Are you actually suggesting that Arsene names a player he wants, the negotiating team works out a deal, and the Arsene steps in and says… Read more »
because we are surrounded by experts in stands and blogs who have won three champions leagues in their careers and want to show wenger how its done….
forget the manager..the fans and the media will decide who plays , where, who gets bought and for how much….
They’d be paid an extra £1 if he scores too
That explains why the Ox scored just 2 goals last season then!
everytime the ox comes on as a sub you can see wenger whispering in his ear “dont score it’ll cost me £50, just run around a bit and look busy”
So the secret of Arshavin’s decline was that we had to pay 15,000 every time he ran at more than 4km and hour, and another 10,000 each time he ran across the halfway line?
meh……….
How can people get paid for writing such bullshit? This current period of time supporting Arsenal has a bad taste to it.
Some of the stuff doing the rounds is just laughable. Michael Calvin’s piece in the Independent too. There was nothing to it, beyond pointing out that some coaches have left over the past few years and our depleted u21s lost heavily to some established teams. Newsflash!
But irate as they are, people lap it up, even when no substance.
And it’s true; it’s not like there aren’t legitimate problems at the club to pick through!
It’s the Daily Mail guys!
Next weeks back page will be “Contracts cause cancer”
Contracts cause a crash in house prices!
Yeah, but people get so bored with the same old crisis day after day. Crises have to get deeper and deeper until they reach a critical breaking point, otherwise the Press can’t make a big deal out of “Arsenal sign a player” or “Arsenal win a game”. “Contract driven by an Arsenal player crashes into a house and cripples pretty and leggy 8 year old girl (See photograph on Page Three). Her mother, Sian, 36-24-36, not a former model, but who always wanted to be, said nothing but looked on heartbroken as her daughter was wheeled into the operating theatre… Read more »
It’s all those foreigners coming over here, taking our British contracts…. etc. etc.
And, come to mention it, was Arsene in Paris on the evening of 31 Aug 1997?
They took urrrrr contracts
they took our jobs? !!
I’m assuming Podolski has a similar contract then. Except his states if he plays more than 73 minutes.
Well done for sticking it to The Daily Maul. Wot a bunch of c*nts they are.
its ok to say ‘cunts’
and in this case ‘fucking cunts’
This bit may actually be true: “He does amusingly infer that Southampton invoice the Gunners accountants on a per-match basis”
“indeed the terms of Chamberlain’s new deal, signed alongside the other Brits last term, probably drew a line under the payments.”
Why would a new deal for Ox change the arrangement we have with the Saints? The Ox contract is personal terms.
‘probably’ is the key word there, we just dont know do we?
i would have thought that there was a cap on the initial clause anyway, either up to a total sum or over a period of time
And if he’s bringing him off the bench after 65 or 67 minutes to avoid him playing 20 then he’s completely retarded (unlikely), for there would be 25 and 23 minutes plus injury time remaining in those games, ergo: the Mail & Ashton are the retarded ones.
I rest my case.
It all sounds like some people at the club are leaking this strategically to cover their asses shifting the whole blame to Wenger. Mond you, I’m convinced he actually is to blame, but still.
How on Earth would this show everything to be Wenger’s fault? I’m sure he doesn’t write in the clauses in the contracts. And more to the point, why would Wenger give a flying fuck about an extra 500k a year? It’s just the hysterical ramblings of a moron, jumping on the “Wenger is scared to spend a single penny!” bandwagon.
Just wait til Arsene invests 70m in the next couple of weeks.
*Clutches tighter to straws*
I have always wondered how journalists can write the biggest rubbish without any responsibility. They should be controlled a lot more, as they actually form people’s opinion through what they write. And, what they usually write, is just pure pollution to people’s minds.
SPOT ON! their job is to record events, not offer opinions. But dont forget, they hate Wenger. Wenger came and owned them in their national sport 26.12.00 with foreigners. Bitter pill to swallow for the wollies with their brollies. How can an englishman ever accept in being a frenchman;s bitch when it comes to football? Of course they will mock him, disrespect him and talk lies to have fans turn against him and make his position difficult. They are absolute cunts. The arsenal fan should be able to see through all this and raise the middle one to english media… Read more »
So that’s 12 million quid plus 3 million in add-ons for Ox-Chamberlain? 15 mil for a kid, who to me looked like he was running around in circles last year? Plus we have been handing over 7.5 million a year to Wenger, plus God knows how much to the 15 or so serial losers we just got rid of…!
Wenger has had about 50 million pounds out of this club, minimum. Unbelievable! Pardon me while I pop out the back yard for a cleansing vomit.
they do get paid more than working on the supermarket checkout, yes
looks to me like he set up our only goal. Pathetic performance. OX OUT!!!!!
Hes lucky he didn’t get called a single parent immigrant benefit cheat
Thanks Neil, you’re always there to give me an extremely interesting read in the morning.
Another reason no to read that cunt of a newspaper.
“There’s also some criticism of our use of Harvard-based analysts who Neil seems to think dictate everything Arsenal do in the transfer market. Presumably they’re on holiday at the moment?”
Moneyball?
This is typical Arsenal-bullying from fat journalists. They just jealous that our players are better-looking (HFB) cooler (Cazorla) and better-liked (Wilshere) than them lot. But speaking of Southampton, how the hell did they get Victor Wanyama when he would’ve been perfect for our squad? Arteta is a Spanish general but considering his age and his physique it should’ve been obvious that he can’t play 50 games in one season any more. Everton describing ManUtd’s GBP16mm bid for Fellaini as being “derisory” is the perfect opportunity to nick him from ManUtd and bring Fellaini to London where he’s said he prefers… Read more »
You must be joking. Wanyama? The Scottish League isn’t even as good as the Championship Division.
what a load of bullshite
am thinking Podoski has a similar contract. And its possible that Wenger is cutting down on pre-season expenses by not signing players early.
No doubt he plans to play 11 kids on Tuesday after his team let him down by winning last night. He really wants to save on airfares to far away places like France and Spain.
Whatever the intentions behind releasing this now, I find it … a little bit worrying that we basically have to pay his former club for each time we play the player that we paid for.
I can understand if it’s dependent on the number f appearances for example, number of goals, number of trophies Arsenal win (sic), but EACH time he plays over 20 minutes? That seems a bit much.
Sorry News Hound, and fellow gooners, but I don’t think this is a very good deal.
Yeah why wont he spend some f&^kin money….??
Oh he is…??? well then why dopesnt he stop?
“well then why dopesnt he stop?”
dope? So that’s what Arsene is spending all of the money on.
Dope? Oh well.. Look he had to do a deal to buy the OX – he is paying for it so how can people ridicule him for that and then ridicule him for not? You and i have no idea of what are normal clauses in a young players purchase contract. He sure as hell puts in clauses when he sells players. Is the OX not worth the add ons? I’d say he’s a 40 million pound player in the making. What can Wenger spend money on? The “Fans” chase any player out of the club that they take the… Read more »
congratulations double98. you got it right. our fans are a disgrace to the term supporter.
I would say Denilson, Eboue, Chamakh, Santos, Arshavin, Alumunia etc.. all had many opportunities to show they were good enough. They didn’t. How many times has Arsene avoided buying a quality, experienced midfielder becase it was going to “Kill Denilson”? How many times did Almunia start for us? How many stupid blunders has Eboue made when he was given the chance to play? Arsenal fans have always been really patient. Ask yourself this: how many of those players would have started at Manchester United? can you see Eboue or Denilson or Almunia, Arshavin (I still love the man) play for… Read more »
Check your stats – Almunia had better all round stats than Ches or Fabianski Eboue was a class full back who got moved to facilitate Sagna – wing back and winger are not the same Chamakh never got a sustained run after RVP got back and was booed almost from the get go Santos was given a bout 3 games before we turned on him Arshavin is like ronaldo – he disappears for 89 minutes and can then pop up and score a goal or get an assist – Ronaldo would be a fat, sad meeerkat if we had him… Read more »
The reason Manure and Chelscum don’t boo Nani/Torres et al is because their clubs are still consistently picking up trophies. If their clubs weren’t and their problems were as obvious and persistent as ours they would lose just as much patience with their under-performing/poor players. The main reason everyone is so pissed off after just one game is because we have been in the same current crap state for the last 3-4 years, it’s deja vu all over again. The fact of the matter is that as head honcho Monsieur Weng is not earning his vast salary – we pay… Read more »
Look decent players aren’t gonna come to a club that boos and ridicules there own players.
A club with a major international broadcaster and pop culture icon Piers Morgan commenting on ever move the club makes.
I think we the fans are creating a vicious circle.
Liverpool are hardly racking up the trophies and they never boo there players.. Jimmy tarbuck isn’t on twitter every 5 minutes calling or heads.
So how would u know what chelsea or united fans would do
“I can understand if it’s dependent on the number f appearances for example, …, but EACH time he plays over 20 minutes? That seems a bit like number f appearances (except the short ones).”
Fixed that for you
Lads – Can Wenger do nothing right – the gobdaw only makes sustitutions after 70 minutes.
How much of a fool is he?
Oh whats that? Arsenal had the best record in the league in the last 20 minutes of games.
Completely unrelated..
A suggestion to Neil for his next article: “We had a clause to pay Sevilla FC £1 for each time Squillaci farted on the bench”
“Arsenal on the Verge of Bankruptcy as Serial Farter Squillaci Racks Up the Bonus Payments”.
“We knew this would happen,” quoted an unnamed source at Sevilla. “We had to play him in every game because when he sits for long periods he cannot control his gas. We saw Wenger was a soft touch and took advantage of him as any true Spaniard would do when a Frenchman comes along. We have not forgotten the Napoleonic Wars even if France has.”
its a ridiculous way to do business though overly complicated…and as Neil points out Arsenal themselves were suprised when this idiotic system backfired on them, as an Arsenal supporter i am extremely Angry with the fact that this blog can never find a bad thing to say about the way this club is being run,
WE ARE SO TIRED OF THIS SHIT
never mind the facts or reality, the most important thing is to be ANGRY IN CAPITAL LETTERS
perspective
Absolute shocker!
I tweeted him last night that this one of worst and incoherent article ever written by a so called journalist. An immature could have done a better job while writing here in the comment section of blog. There was no singular point and lots of BS just to create more negativity around club and some fans will no doubt will take and run away with it. Similar piece was written by someone in independent about our academy, again poorly researched without facts. Having said that blog approved that on twitter!
The piece about the academy might have been light on facts, but the underlying point is, sadly, very accurate. Things at that level are not running well at all and we should be concerned about it.
Still, I think the problem with the academies is not exclusive to The Arsenal. We’re just coming to terms with it now. There isn’t much quality there anymore (a frightening prospect for the future of English football). The other top teams realized this a long time ago and began investing in more established overseas players while we went the other way round. The results are there for all to see. Its commendable that Arsene decided to cut his losses.
That might be true, but many of our issues are down to poor running of things.
perhaps you should be more concerned with S U P P O R T I N G our players and manager……oh i forgot you are mainstream now…the narrative is money money money spend spend spend…bad summer….disorganised..blah blah blah..
next thing we know youll be running polls “should wenger go?” …..
congratulations !!!!
I agree that recent cull at the academy level and poor performance on the pitch is of real concern, much needs to be done there. Having said that those who are investing heavily, like Chelsea did with their academy nothing has come through. It will be interesting to see what City does with their academy with all focus on buying stars and no one coming through the ranks good enough to make their first team. Even youngsters these academies have are from outside UK. I would rather see us cutting back on investment in academy to bare minimum and invest… Read more »
“Incredibly a trend emerged”
…of Wenger using him as a substitute in some games!
Fascinating stuff!
Well, we don’t call it the Daily Fail for nothing.
What else do you expect from the Daily Heil? It is (and let`s be scrupulously fair here) owned written and read by a bunch of complete and utter cunts.
[…] write such shit to try tarnish the legacy of a man that’s done so much for the club. Arseblog do well explaining how ridiculous the article […]
I guess Arsenal pays Cologne £20,000 each time Poldi plays for more than 2 minutes too.
The Daily Mehl??
Arsenal is the easy target at the moment and everybody is making whoopi! For me the most painful thing is seeing Arsenal fans stirring it up. You cant tell an Arsenal fan apart from a Sp*rs fan these days. On Saturdays’s game, you take away the incompetent refereeing we easily win that game! What with the Cazorla miss and the two Rosicky misses! These things happens in football and watching City last night being denied a blatant penalty when Toure was brought down I remembered had they been playing against us that was a penalty and a red crad!
Not being the brightest I sometimes listen to Talksport. The self-proclaimed Arsenal supporters who phone in to moan about our club are treacherous scumbags, with a similar mentality to grasses.
“Ashton’s article also talks about Arsenal’s failed pursuit of Wilfried Zaha claiming Wenger’s dithering saw us lose out to Manchester United. Perhaps, but weirdly it chooses not to make a similar suggestion about United when they lost out to us over Chamberlain.”
and didnt we also beat them to the sig of ramsey?
19 Premier League clubs lost out to Manchester United after dithering about over Zaha. This same story will be thrown at Chelsea, Man Citeh, any team that goes through a bad patch. These pricks write to a formula. Any team they want to hound has dithered over some player at some time, or backed out of negotiations because they were unwilling to pay an extra few pounds and thus lost out to their fiercest rivals. Any bad luck is down to neglect or dissent in the ranks. It’s just our turn to cop it all. They’ll be giving United the… Read more »
Speaking of Southampton, Wanyama & Osvaldo….signed for Southampton. Who wouldn’t take both those now? But they signed for Southampton. Wanyama especially would have been a good signing, more needed than say, oh Yohan Kebab.
At this time I’d take Rickie Fucking Lambert
The Ox is one of my favourite players and I have no problem with the clause. A max of £2.5m – £3m if he plays every game in his first 5 years? Bargain. The over 20mins clause is very clever when you think about it. Wenger knew as a young player The Ox would be slowly bled into the team. If he’s injured for any period of time which unfortunately it looks like he may be then we pay nothing. For a few years while he’s developing and adjusting to premier league football we pay nothing. Then if he kicks… Read more »
When Arsenal signed Charles Buchan in the late 20’s/early 30’s there was a dispute between Arsenal and Sunderland over the fee with Sunderland wanting £3000 more than we were willing to pay (some things never change). We agreed on a clause that meant we would pay the lower fee plus an additional £100 for every goal scored in his first season. He scored 33 so we we’re quids out (some things never change).
Anyway, as you’ll see performance related clauses are really nothing new are they!
Sure let’s all unite behind out hate for shitty journalists that seem to have an axe to grind about the Arse, but the fact is we are getting our ass handed to us in the transfer window. Exacerbated by the fact that our North London rivals are making us look like amateurs. As recently as about 4 years ago, I looked at Spuds as a minor annoyance and thought United (and Chelsea) were are actual rivals in terms of winning things. Now, we’re barely competitive with the other teams in the top 4 (how many wins did we collect over… Read more »
our north london rivals? what is that? ah you probably mean our bitches next door ..the ones weve been fucking the last 17 years senseless…. love them …they always find a way to lift our spirits
Another factless spew of fabrication from the daily ‘end of the world’ mail. Next weeks article – ‘if only Diana was here to save Arsenal’
I came in here on the basis of the headline on Facebook, hope gathering rapidly in my naive heart.
“Holy shit, we’ve done it, we’ve signed a player” I thought to myself, before becoming consumed with excitement over who we had finally got. “Please god just don’t let it be someone really shite like Chamakh”.
I click the link, the page loads and I quickly figure out I’ve been trolled its really a story about a bored Daily Mail journalist. My heart sinks again.
We haven’t fucking signed anybody as usual.
You’ve got to feel at least slightly sorry for AW. All summer the DM “sports” (lol) section have been making up rumours about players linked to Arsenal…They then criticize him for failing to make these fictional transfers! I honestly believe that journos like Niel Ashton are permanently pissed that they are denied Kardashian duty.
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
Load of crock and I’m happy you contradicted this. The fact that no one else has picked up this idiot’s story and re-hashed it tells you what the others think / know too. Arsene’s subs are at the 70 min mark generally, regardless of who it is (which is kinda frustrating) – all Arsenal fans know this and so should’ve this moron, had he done some research. I’m not gonna even talk about the Zaha thing or missing out on folks but as for the Academy in trouble – our team, unlike any other, is (& has been) fueled by… Read more »
So, if ox comes on at 73 mins, and the ref adds 5 mins of injury time, does it constitute 22 mins or not?