Friday, March 29, 2024

Ox thanks Arsenal and fans, says it was tough but right to leave

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has thanked Arsenal fans for their support during his six years at the club, and while he admits it was a tough decision to leave, he feels he’s made the best decision for his career.

His desire to play in central-midfield has been a key driver to the departure, and just like Kieran Gibbs did yesterday he sent a message of thanks after the deal had been done.

Via his Instagram account, he said, “After six years, three FA Cup wins and countless incredible memories, the time has come for me to move on from Arsenal.

“I want to publicly thank Arsene, the coaching and club staff and my amazing team mates for all of the incredible opportunities I have been given. Thank you so much to you, the fans, who have always had my back – I honestly couldn’t be more grateful.

“The club, and my time here, will always mean a massive amount to me. I know my choice might come as a surprise to many, and the decision to leave was tough after being a part of the club for so many years.

“But I feel that this move is right for the next stage in my ongoing development.”

He was always a popular, if frustrating figure, and we’ll have to wait and see if he reaches his potential at Liverpool. Arsenal got good money for him, and it’s a deal that really shouldn’t generate the kind of anger towards the departing player as others have in the past.

Any anger ought to be directed towards the club who are, as yet, unwilling or unable to reinvest the transfer fee back into a squad which badly needs it.

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Clock End 20

Sack the board.

Oroshzaki

Who will sack the board and who runs the club afterwards?

Up the Arsenal

Wenger would be happy to install more stooges at the club

Too Drunk To Be Offside

Its hard to get excited. Even if somehow Wenger lands Messi AND Ronaldo and Coutinho AND Ramos, you know the club will still not win the league with Wenger leading the way.

Its a depressing realisation. F*ck it.

Andy

RAMOS? Wouldn’t take him on a free he’s a cheating disgrace. Look what he did in champions league final there is something seriously wrong with him

Heavenly Chapecoense

Ramos is a winner and even as a defender scores more goals than Welbeck and Ox put together.

Toni

This. He would be a better striker than Welbeck.

Wenger\'s coat zipper

My dead grandma would be a better striker than Welbeck. You know? The guy that Wenger started in front of Lacazette and Giroud at Enfield? The guy who missed 4-5 chances the previous game at Britannia?!

Billy Dyer

Lmao.
Ain’t called Enfield. It’s called Anfield.

Morten

Messi, Ronaldo and coutinho in the back 3 then? If they don’t warm the bench.

Nasri\'s missing chinbone

I think change is long overdue but I don’t think that’s actually how board appointments work

GunnerSawUs

Us?

GYWE

Coastguard?

Anonymarse

Shame we cannot sack the owner

nacho man

bang on

GoonerJust

If Ox in his final year worth 40m, Alexis must be worth 100m. Or 60m plus Sterling.No less than that!

Jean Ralphio

Have a feeling we have a signing up our sleeves. Ox was offered a lot of money to stay so can we blame Arsenal for selling? I hope we sort out our defensive issues this window but sadly think we won’t

Lula

More of this to come. Player didn’t want to play under the manager repeating the same shit over and over. I don’t blame him but this breaks my heart.

Bon Jello

If we could make one priority signing today, I’d like it to be Söme Ballz (I think he’s Norwegian, and he’s a lot like Dave Angel: Eco Warrior). Just imagine if we had Söme Ballz on or off the pitch. Losing 2-0 and need to turn the game around, we throw Söme Ballz on. Imagine if we could attach Söme Ballz to Dick Law to help him negotiate. Or if Söme Ballz could drag Kroenke out of the shadows and force him to address the fanbase. Or the next time we’re negotiating an advertising deal, and we’re getting a rough… Read more »

Chan

Yeah, but the problem is Söme Ballz might be played out of position anyway…

Bon Jello

This is true, but Söme Ballz is surprisingly versatile. You can play with Söme Ballz on the wing, you can dangle Söme Ballz right in front of the opposition keeper, even stick Söme Ballz in the back line, but I’d advise having a sweeper ahead of him as Söme Ballz can be sloppy at times.

oozil

And we know how uncomfortable it is when some ballz is out of position

Some Ballz

like in the back

Captain Kirk

Good idea but we’d also need his fellow countrymen Givé Afûck cos we all know it’s no use having Söme Balls if you don’t Givé Afûck!

Chan

nah, i think the club made it clear that we are not interested in Givé Afûck

Parisian Weetabix

I’d play Some Balls deep in the defensive mid position, alongside Coq. Separately they’re not great, but between them they’ve got a great tackle and I reckon that can help us score. We can penetrate the defence using Coq, and Balls can send loads up through him so he can shoot them off. Of course it’s possible the opposition will be wise to our strategy in which case we’ll have to look for other holes in their defence. Coq might have to get dirty, and it’s possible that Balls will too, depending how deep we are, so we might risk… Read more »

Gooniegoogoo

If he fulfils his potential then he is going to be a scary opponent in future. Farewell Oxen

kaius

I wish him all the best. Obviously a good bloke, and has earned us an absolute fortune. We could afford to buy two proven internationals to replace him but *deep sigh*

Drew

That twitter post comes with a picture of him literally turning his back on Arsenal!!

Xxxrob

I just want one parting shot if I may.

Will henceforth be known as Alex dogcunt centremid.

Ok I feel better. Thanks for the £40m

Xxxrob

Swing and a miss eh boys? Ah well!

aberinkula

Give it two years, they’ll be selling him to Crystal Palace for less than 1/2 of that.

kaius

What’s your point, that even if his value goes down he’ll still be worth nearly 20mil in two years?

As if we’d get that much *today* for players who are still at the club like Walcott, Welbeck and Perez.

Lord Bendnter

Will genuinely miss him. Best wishes to him, hope he succeeds in that central midfield role.

London

I won’t. One of the players Arsene persisted with for too long. Unfortunately there are still too many others which are still at the club

Billy Dyer

Why???
What has he done for our Club? Has been on that treatment table far too many times…
He says about that CM position… he’s been given endless opportunities to nail it down and make it his. But he kept letting himself down, Wenger and us fans, with his utter shite performances.
He is not a bad fella, but not the guy you rely when things go against you.

Clockenddan

Yeah not too much anger towards him but still, compare the way he went about his move with the way Gibbs went about his. Gibbs was a gent, the Ox was an arse. But the club did better out of the Ox so maybe we need more of that to boost the coffers.

naija gooner

Beg to disagree the club made it look like hez an ass by doing the right thing at the wrong time,should they have to wit til he is in the final yr before offering him a contract

Hereford gooner

A departing statement is not really necessary. I don’t see Arsenal fans booing him or anything like that – because fans only boo the players that they REALLY didn’t want to see leave (rvp, nasri, fabregas etc). Those hurt, this doesn’t

Anonymarse

At least he didn’t just go to Chelshit for the money

Anonymarse

Wins him some respect

Hereford gooner

I agree completely. I hope no Arsenal fans give him a hard time – it’d be a waste of our anger, and there are more suitable targets to direct our anger at

kaius

It really shouldn’t hurt our pride that he’s leaving. Also rejecting Chelsea must have been such a satisfying thing to do. Good lad.

Possession

If its true that he turned down £225k pw from the Chavs and £180k pw from us to go to Liverpool because they have promised him a career in centre midfield then he has gone way up in my estimation. If Klopp doesn’t keep his word Chamberlain will feel one Hell of a fool though.

Billy Dyer

He went to Liverpool cuz of his GF

50 shades of Andy Grey

You know what? My anger at those other players has suddenly turned into an epiphany: I don’t blame them for not wanting to play for the shit show that is Arsenal FC. We have been a mess for quite some time, it seemed to get better with the signings of ozil and Sanchez, but it is even worse than before. Why wouldn’t a player want to move to somewhere they can win things, earn more money, a place they may be happier? A place where they may play more? Where they get top tier European football? Most of the players… Read more »

gooner49

trying to take an objective point of view, its hard not to respect this decision. He’s a young player coming into the prime of his career and lets face it, is not developing as you would expect at Arsenal, given his natural ability. Sadly i have a suspicion Klopp will get more out of him than Arsene and even more sad is Ox himself knows that and is willing to loose out on £3million a year to work under a new manager.

san

for sure he is not a van persie – so no regret at all – arsenal can manage without him – henry was a super player and his move to barcelona was sad

Belfast Gooner

What the **** was he doing on the pitch on Sunday playing against the team he was wanted to join? He shouldn’t have been anywhere near the team. You could tell by his performance as well.

OneBeatOff

Only one man can answer that … Might require a wait for that ‘moment of clarity’ which is often referred to regarding sufferers …
Sorry, I may be grasping for straws but I simply can’t my head around whats going on. 🙁

Kris

Whilst I certainly don’t put him in the Adebayor or Nasri kind of ‘angry’ category, the reality is this a player we’ve put an incredible amount of time, effort and, above all, patience into. For that, I would have expected a greater degree of loyalty than we’ve seen from Chamberlain. Nonetheless, the real issues for now are: 1) Why have we accommodated playing others out of position this season when we must have known the big deal was not whether he was playing right or left wing back, but whether he was a centre-mid. 2) Why – given the above… Read more »

Danny

Loyalty?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Danny

Otherwise yeah, completely agree

Dawn

If he’d been offered a deal whilst injured or coming back from injury what would have been the reaction? He could easily get injured in his next game for England which hasn’t happened before has it! .

Happy

Good to see your back.

Onenil

Remember the look on his face last season with our fans screaming ‘Your not fit to wear the shirt’. He was far from the worst player that day. I am not surprised he chose to leave.

Thomas

I guess he will return injured after the national break…

stefan

I’ll reserve judgement on anger / not anger. His performance against the scousers was an abomination. Worst of a bad lot. Not just shit, but shit and not bothered.

Runzac

He´s steadfast on his dream playing as a central midfielder. Follow your dreams they say. With the voice of the Albanien criminal in th film Taken “Good Luck”

Big Dave

Can’t argue with that…. the way things are any player should leave if they want to further their career. Please show him some respect when he comes back.

Rectum_Spectrum

That pool game aside – where it was a ridiculous decusion to pick him anyway – he always tried, never hid. Best of luck playing for your child hood club!

QMantis

Good luck to him. I’m glad he’s made the decision to leave as wenger would otherwise continue to play him at the expense of team balance. No where near one of the best players in his time with us, but is in many ways a reflection of the managers failed attempts to fit in good/average players who simply haven’t got it to reach the ‘top top’ quality needed but will be paid very very well while they try.

bdotm

At least there are no more excuses not to start Kolasinac on the left. From next weekend I fully expect our strongest eleven to start EVERY league game. What would we be ‘resting’ players for? So much ground to make up already

Jason

Thanks for leaving. You did nothing for the club

san

rightly so – he was and is an average player – but surely will be a spare player at pool – except players injuries – pool will not win the league this year believe me -his decision is His – but Arsenal will move on Stronger – we are in a mess now but have more trophies than pool during the five six years – we need to start winning the CL – proper players at right place and a better Manager to start with – a young one to start our progression – football is always about winning matches… Read more »

LordH

Good luck Ox right move and not just about the money WTF is going on at Board level?

Steve AFC brown

No loss thanks for the money Liverpool pity it won’t be spent by our deluded clueless manager

ashburton red

Good luck to Ox. A decent guy who is smart enough to know that (sadly) the best for him is elsewhere.

Doug

I genuinely don’t see him making their starting XI with any regularity unless Coutinho really does leave today. I’d say I wish him well but that means Liverpool would do well and we can’t have that

Fourth Place

Good riddance.

Godfrey Twatsloch

Too much goodwill towards Ox for my liking. Like someone said, we watched him give the ball away and then get injured with the odd glimpse of brilliance on repeat for years and for our loyalty he took off to Liverpool. Well I can’t feel particularly gracious about that. Cockpuffin indeed! Now let’s sell that Chilean primadonna to Citeh for even more overinflated money and then let’s buy Lemar. I know I’m in wishful thinking territory here so let’s go further down that route and hope Wenger gets given his marching orders and we bring in a new manager with… Read more »

The Limp Bar

Have to disagree- yes absolutely we should be very very angry with what’s happening at the club. But I have to say I have never felt as angry with a player leaving as I do with him. His words mean nothing to me – we stuck by him through countless injuries and bad form, then first modicum of consistency from him and he jumps ship. And if he really wanted to go he should have made it 100% clear at the beginning of the window instead of faffing around (which the club obviously excel at too) and leaving us in… Read more »

I\'m Professor Ignorance, on this subject

Um, he did make it clear. He refused to sign contract after contract after contract. They offered him 180000 a week and he turned it down. Chelsea offered him, what, 220000 a week? Turned it down. Now he’s on 120000 a week because Liverpool have presumably assured him he’s going to get a chance to fulfill his sporting wishes.

If anything he should be praised for this. It’s the exact opposite of greed.

The Limp Bar

I never mentioned money. My issue is one regarding loyalty. We have shown him great loyalty over the years and he has shown us none. I may be a dinosaur about this and have a view of Gunnersaurus proportions but that’s how I feel about it. He had bad times and more bad times but we stuck with him. We have bad times and it’s ‘see ya.’ I understand his reasons for leaving but I just cannot respect them – especially as he tries to leave on good terms with the fans, like I said his words are meaningless to… Read more »

I for one does not believe he will be treated at Pool like arsenal did – Agree or Not pls comment – afterall he is not a world beater – what Klopp plan?

goonanc

did we know this was coming before k/o Sunday? we’re a shitshow just now?⚽?⚽?

ScotchEggsRule

A non event. He was never a starting XI player. Good money earned. Time to move on.

Comedian

40 million for a player in his last year and who did nothing is a good deal, regardless of he becomes a hit there will only highlight problems with our coaching.
Still doesnt excuse 6 points lost for making him play at rwb.

Jonah

When are you going to sell your Arseblog branded pitchforks Andrew? You’ve got a buyer right here. As I’m pretentious, can I have a trident?

Martin

Let’s send Gibbs and see If they notice…

\'Murica

I’m not mad at him. Always liked him despite his shortcomings and he proved that this wasn’t about the money.

Loose_Cannon

“it’s a deal that really shouldn’t generate the kind of anger towards the departing player as others have in the past.”

“Any anger ought to be directed towards the club who are, as yet, unwilling or unable to reinvest the transfer fee back into a squad which badly needs it.”

Couldn’t agree more with this and personally think it’s a big miss for our team. Good luck and let’s move on

Fuhgedaboudit l

ALEXIS MUST GO!!!!!! JUST BECAUSE HE SCORED 30 GOALS DOESN’T MEAN HE DOESN’T HURT THE TEAM. HE IS A SELFISH PLAYER THAT DOESN’T PARTICULARLY CARE ABOUT HOW THE TEAM DOES AS LONG AS HE DOES WELL. IF YOU WATCHED HIS TEPID CELEBRATIONS LAST YEAR WHEN ANY BODY ELSE ON THE TEAM SCORED BUT HIM YOU WILL KNOW WHAT I MEAN.I ALWAYS BELIEVE FOOTBALL IS A TEAM SPORT, NOT 11 INDIVIDUALS WORRIED ABOUT THEIR STATS.

Gibirbubi

You fought bravely at weekend, man… Thank you for beeing a hope and nothing more for years.. Alex Overpriced Chamberlain

Gary mcintosh

If you dont want to play for us p… off and take that t..ts with you ..We dont need you .

Wolfaugen

I would first like to thanks the Oxe for his effort for the team, another black day in the transfer window. I do agree, that all the anger should be directed towards Wenger and the board. I, for one, will clap when The Oxe returns to Emirates, even for another team.

Assistantref

He downed tools against Liverpool. Then moved to them. It’s shameful. Most of the blame goes to Arsene for playing him but he disgraced himself too. I don’t know why Klopp would want a player he just watched refusing to try when he didn’t fancy it. Looks like a good fee for a mentally weak chronic underachiever. Just the sort of player Arsenal don’t need.

Of course, that’s assuming his mental weakness and lack of character aren’t just caused by being at the club so long…

Eduardo da Silvestre

Thank you for your time here but you’re the enemy now so forgive me for not wishing you well

Samuel Ogungbayi

Wise boy! The Ox waited for more than 6 years for Wenger to pay him in central mid field all to no avail. In 2012 , the Ox was 18 years old but in the Champions League match at the Emirates against A C Milan , he showed his talent and the whole sporting press commended him for dominating older and more experienced players in the mid field . Wenger said that would be his position in future. Since 2012 the Ox and fans have been waiting. Wenger has turned him to a jack of all trades,master of none!He was… Read more »

Shitbird82

Good luck Ox. People crowing about how he turned down more money at Arsenal to play at Liverpool should remember that he turned down even an even bigger contract at Chelsea. You can’t blame him for wanting to play for Klopp–the kid needs to have more belief in himself, and that’s what he’ll get there.

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