Arsene Wenger has touched on some of the young players he’s bringing on the trip to Singapore, and expanded quite a bit on Jeff Reine-Adelaide.
The French youngster was signed this summer from Lens, and the Arsenal manager says although he’s an attacker now, his future might lie elsewhere.
“He’s an offensive player,” said the boss, “but he can develop into an all-round midfielder as well. At the moment he plays on the right or left but I think he can develop as a central midfielder as well.”
We all know Arsene likes his players to be versatile, but those quotes sounded quite familiar to us. So we went searching and found the boss talking in a very similar way about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“At the moment he is still in development,” he said of the England international. “It is good for his education to play on the left, right or centrally, but after the age of 23 or 24 he will settle into a position. He will be an Aaron Ramsey type.”
Indeed, you wonder if recent events, like the re-signing of Mikel Arteta to a one year deal, are part of the manager’s plan to give Oxlade-Chamberlain a bigger role in the season ahead, rather than signing another midfield player.
He’s still to nail down his position, of course, so we’ll have to see. In the meantime, we’ll see how the young man gets on during the tour, and if he sees any playing time.
Only reason for giving Arteta a Catheter of a one year contract is to take the piss.
I reckon wenger asked him to stay on an extra year because of his leadship qualities, not that many leaders in the team,good leadership is essential for a title winning team
It’s certainly a lot more likely than doing it for a very bad pun.
Not to mention he’s a damn good player… People are forgetting how offensively useful he is, with his immaculate passing. Before there was a lot of talk discussing how Arteta only passes sideways, but we have to remember that the condition of our midfield and forwards were severely lackluster compared to the force we have now. An Arteta longball to Giroud, for hold up, and to Aaron Ramsey for a poach was one of our key strategies in many of our 2-0 wins in ’13-’14. It’s a weapon I would not give up – all of the leadership is also… Read more »
A short memory and an inability to spot footballing ability make you uniquely unqualified to comment on squad building matters.
Hmm. SuperNova. Trolling.
Stinks of a Manc in here.
Check your wallets, lads.
Think that picture might be Fortune.
Think you’re right, now updated. Thanks.
You should have left it the same just to troll Andre Marriner.
haha
I feel Chambo is one of our best players and genuinely believe if he can stay injury free this season he’ll be the one of the best in the country!
Ditto, the media focuses on shit players like Kane, Sterling and Shaw when Oxlade is (in my opinion) already a far superior player and way ahead of those guys. All the best English players are now at arsenal.
While I agree with the sentiment, I still would like to see Oxlade-Chamberlain be Oxlade-Chamberlain for a season or two before we start discussing the new one.
I really like the Ox on the right. He has phenomenal pace, is very tricky and tenacious as well.
In midfield I feel he may be a bit risky in terms of his propensity to dribble a lot leading to losing the ball in dangerous areas.
But I haven’t been a coach for 30 years so what do I know?
In spite of his physical potential, I can’t really see how Oxlade-Chamberlain could be a successful midfielder with only three neurons. But OK, let’s be surprised.
What am I missing here?!
Chamberlain has clearly some deep shortcomings when it comes to reading the game, to making the right choice. And he’s lacking of tactical sense ; a lot. And he often loses his concentration (what he did before the Ferreira-Carrasco’s goal against Monaco, in the first leg). What I call intelligence.
Doesn’t mean he’s a bad player. He has some skill, he’s powerful, he can do big damages on the wings. But I can’t see him in such a vital position as central midifielder, even later in his career.
Isn’t the main point about developing as a player the acquisition of that intelligence?
According to me (and it’s only my view, I can’t say it as a universal truth), a player can develop in a lot of areas throughout his career. I said Oxlade lacked of tactical sens : that is something he can fix for example, I have to admit it. But intelligence, vista, the feeling of the game – all of these things that make a player intelligent in terms of football – , you have it or you don’t. It’s not something you can create from nothing.
Not sure Blogs, but if you find out can you let the rest of us know too?
And here I ought there was to be some fun physical chemistry joke based on Ox’s name.
I’m a bit let down.
The Oxlade-Chamberlain Theorem sure sounds convincing to me
Their names are close enough
Still can’t believe we have Arteta and Flamini on the books? If we want to challenge other title contenders, we should get rid of the fluff and dead wood. Flamini and Arteta fall in the dead wood category. People screaming “leadership qualities” forget that we now have a team full of leaders.
Cut ’em loose I say
Here’s to hoping that Jeff Reine-Adelaide will become “Le Petit Ox”.
You can never have enough quality Oxen bossing the midfield, no?
His name reminds me of alidalidiadiaidiere. Here’s hoping he’s a little bit better 😉
Yes, let us all get behind the wonderfully named Jeff Queen-Adelaide
“OxenCart Chamberpot”! (Lol). My favourite of Blog’s famous name-pranks. Always made give out a cackle. Was kind of hoping he will come up with one for the new boy. Any chance blogs? Yes????
Hoping for the best.
If Wenger had his way, everyone would be a central midfielder.
I still remember when he said Nasri would be a DM. He says this about almost every young player.
Nasri was certainly more a DM than Oxlade. Putting him in a central role would be a nonsense, as far as I respect Wenger.
Once and for all, Oxlade is a pure winger, with speed and skills to play on the wing. He has definitely no attribute to play a central role
Except for his passing and natural drive, two useful attributes in the middle.
Well woy thinks superjacks the man and it worked so…
John Terry is an offensive player.
John Terry is an offensive cunt*
Much better
Wenger is always interested in changing a player’s role for no apparent reason. how on can Chamberlain with his speed, dribble and nimble footed softball be a central midfielder ?
I imagine you’d have said something a bit similar about Santi.
I think most all of us would have.
If you learn nothing else, that Wenger is clever and sees things we don’t should be near top of your list by now if you’re paying attention.
i always try to play ox on ramsey positision ,on my pes
I disagree, I think most people were aware Santiago could play in midfield. Maybe not as deep as he played last year but definitely as a cam. I mean he played there a few times in his career before he came to arsenal.
So yeah oxlade’s case is quite different.
Oxlaide is The Ox! Energy speed Dribble Am in love!
Is everybody forgetting 2 seasons ago when we needed to win against Newcastle to get CL football? Arteta got injured and Ox played next to Ramsey for majority of the game and player admirably. Considering it was a really important game and we only won 1-0 it shows he can play in that position even when the pressure is on.