Arsene Wenger has insisted that he wants to keep Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at the club, and that he will run the risk of losing him on a free transfer in 12 months time.
The Arsenal manager spoke highly of the 24 year old’s potential in the wake of stories linking him with a move to Chelsea, and despite the fact that he has, thus far, rejected all offers to made to him by the club, the Frenchman seems determined not to cash in.
Speaking at his press conference this morning, Wenger was asked about the future of the Ox, and said, “I rate him highly and I think he’s one of the players who is on his way up.
“In the last year he has made huge progress. Personally, I want him to stay here for a long time and I’m convinced he will be the English player in the next two or three years that everyone will look at.”
Asked if the club could cope financially with losing Oxlade-Chamberlain for nothing, along with Alexis Sanchez and possibly Mesut Ozil too, Wenger continued, “Let’s not be wrong, it’s not an ideal situation on the financial side.
“It demands some sacrifice but first of all it doesn’t mean the players who are in the final year won’t extend their contract – there’s still that possibility, and we work on that as well.”
It obviously remains to be seen what will happen, but if Oxlade-Chamberlain won’t sign, Arsenal may have to sell – especially when you consider how much upheaval there may be to the squad between now and next summer. There’s also a difference between saying you want a player to stay, and saying a player will stay.
It’s hard not to think there might be a few twists and turns before this window closes.
Translation;
Chelsea deal isn’t done. C’mon Liverpool, get a bid in.
He’s a fantastic player. You don’t want to miss this opportunity.
Hope Arsene sticks to his word.
Make him an offer he can’t refuse
I think the translation is that Wenger has always wanted to keep these players and the inability to extend their contracts (largely but not entirely) rests elsewhere. I place most of the blame on Dick Law, can’t believe he’s still in his job, he’s a fiasco!
Translation – I’m keeping these players to save my own neck & work the full two years of this contract. Even though it will cost the club 125 million in transfer fees & even more in new purchases I care more about keeping my dictatorial rule over the club for as long as possible.
Rubbish. He wants to keep the players for the good of the club. Why be so negative about everything that AW says or does.
I’m not always negative, I praised his subs in the Leicester game. The point I’m trying to make is the absolute farcical situation we find ourselves in, no other top club has ever or will be in the situation and yet no one criticises it or questions it, why? People don’t seem to be able to separate Arsene the man (marvelous) and the Manager (sadly well past it). He admitted that earlier this month that his contract situation was a big reason why we didn’t make fifth & had terrible performance in the second half of the season, yet everyone… Read more »
I agree we’re in a bad position re these contracts and that there’s plenty of blame to go around between AW, Gazidis and Law. But to say the other top clubs don’t find themselves in these positions seems a bit off this summer. Barca are fucked trying to replace Neymar, Liverpool can’t get the defender they want and will suck without him, Spuds (i know they’re not a top club but they did finish second last year so including them in the list) are losing players with no plans to replace and look at the mess Chelski are in. If… Read more »
No. Barcelona lost Neymar but got 222 million euros for him. Thats a shit load of money. It will be years before anyone truly figures out who ended up the worse off in this transaction. For even half that money Arsenal would sell Sanchez. And Sanchez actually had better stats last year than Neymar and is more crucial to the club than Neymar was to Barcelona. Liverpool didn’t get a transfer target. Thats a fiasco to you? Well then Arsenal have failed for both Mbappe and Lemar. FYI, Liverpool finished above Arsenal last year. Chelsea have won the damn league… Read more »
Araj, the voice of reason and predictor of the future.
*Sigh* Glocken. Even the things that Wenger does which are clearly positive footballing decisions (like keeping Alexis), the Wenger Out boys just jump to the corporate side in order to still be in opposition to him. This summer has shown me that we may not know how good we have it with Wenger, because when he goes, the board will step into the power vacuum and in the case of this Summer, would have cashed in on Alexis, Ozil and Chambo as soon as they got the chance. In which case, to put it mildly, we’d have been utterly fucked… Read more »
Completely disagree. Sanchez, Ozil & Ox should have been given an ultimatum to sign a new deal, if they didn’t then they would be sold.
I’ve no love for the board but if we had a proper footballing infrastructure in place then we wouldn’t be in this mess. This mess is of Wenger’s own doing but fans such as yourselves obsession with him means you won’t hold him to account.
You initially say Wenger should give them an “ultimatum to sign a new deal, if they don’t then they should be sold.” Which is a fair enough position. I don’t think it’s worth selling Alexis or Ozil, since if we do and subsequently miss out on the champion’s league again, then we won’t be financially much better off anyway. But it’s a fair enough position. But you go on to say “this mess is of Wenger’s own doing”. I don’t really understand this, what exactly should Arsene have done before this summer, if they didn’t want to sign up, then… Read more »
So let’s make this simpler of how “this mess is of Wenger’s own doing”: Wenger controls, as far as the common impression goes, all the inner working of the club from transfers to contracts and even the personnel who handle these things at the club. This makes him culpable on two accounts. Firstly, that these transfer negotiations weren’t started sooner. Most clubs hand out new contracts to their star players far far before the previous ones end. A common method you will see is to start negotiations after some sort of achievement so that the club gives the impression that… Read more »
I am still not sure where I stand with the Ox. I don’t really understand how he has the basis to make such huge demands from the boss. Ultimately, Arsene has always made every attempt to give him minutes wherever possible, but either due to him being injured, or putting in hyper inconsistent performances, he is then dropped.. I remember a specific bit of play that perfectly sums up Chamberlain; we were playing Spurs away at the Lane, I think at the time we were 1 nil down or maybe 2-1 I cant remember specifically. But he picks up the… Read more »
Like Quaresma? 🙁
I find this whole situation over contracts completely baffling. If we keep Ox, Ozil and Sanchez, we could lose upwards of £150m next summer.
For any club that represents a huge loss. For a club historically working with a strict budget it seems like financial suicide. It just seems to contradict completely how the club has always been run.
The club was run like that out of necessity as we had to clear the stadium debt, things are a bit different now. Some will view it as a loss of 150m but what are those players worth for one season to us if they get us back in the CL? 35m to sign Sanchez for 4 years was great business so even if he goes for free next Summer it is still not a bad outcome. If we could sign someone like Griezmann for 40m now but we knew he was going to leave for free in 4 years,… Read more »
I think the penny has finally dropped.
Life is what happens whilst your making plans for it.
There’s no point having a 3-5 yr plan or making any type of medium to long term planning.
The financial landscape keeps moving, the gap between the top clubs and the rest is getting bigger.
There’s more money than great players.
We’ve basically got 15 days to clear out 8-10 squad players and sign another 2 who’ll push for the first team.
At the speed we generally work I won’t hold my breath.
Stadium debt isn’t cleared…still over 10 years to go before that loan is paid off
Wenger is gambling on Winning the league and/or the Europa this season. Therefore convincing the players to buy into the following season as a real chance for something big i.e the Champion’s League.. unlikely but you never know.
Either way he knows he has to produce this season and winning by having his best players available is worth far more than 150m. League TV and prize money alone was 142.8m last season. Now does it make sense?
So it took persistent failings and a mutiny for the penny to finally drop for him…now that his positions was put under pressure he feels that we must now compete?
And if they’re sold, you’ll say ‘same old Arsenal, always the selling club’……
No I wouldnt – it wasn’t a criticism at all. Persoanlly I’m delighted we’re not selling Sanchez.
I just find it so surprising that we’d risk losing such a vast sum of money.
Hanging on to all of these players is completely short-sighted and irresponsible. I can only imagine the talks with the board around him signing a new contract went along the lines of “either you show us that you’re capable of winning the league or we’re not renewing again”. After all the years of sniping at other managers for only looking out for themselves (rightfully so, I think), he’s now doing exactly that. With the stupid transfer fees players are going for (Sigurdsson for £45m ffs!) that £150m in the bank (or whatever it is) is not going to cover the… Read more »
Forget next summer.
it’s nice to see the club putting their sporting aspirations first for once.
They still haven’t done enough IMO, but certainly don’t deserve criticism for keeping our best talent.
If we can keep them fit? I think we’ll get big seasons from Xhaka, Rambo and Ox.
In our new system I genuinely think Alexis could bag us 40+.
I’m angry at the club for a lot of things but getting to watch Alexis for another season certainly isn’t one of them.
I’m just glad Giroud has publicly committed to us ?
In an ideal world the others would extend too.
I think Arsene is genuine about the Ox and Jack. When there is so much money floating around, there is more need to get rid of others in the squad before these two.
Is your name from the Terry Pratchett discworld series? Please say yes.
I read that we’re interested in Marco Asensio. How happy I will be if the smoke had real flame and could turn to fire.
Joshua Kimmich is my other fantasy midfield signing. Be over the moon wit either lol
Chamboison the up! Good decision!
christ, i just want this transferwindow to end. it’s all so tedious.
Agree 100% And scrap the mid season one too! So sick of all the speculation
My thoughts exactly mate…and you’re correct to Sal, January window is joke! I hope they do start closing the window before the season starts, it would certainly calm all this BS a little bit
This is all just really f**king stupid and boring now.
Question: when does this transfer window end?
Way, way too late.
Really pleased to hear AW say this. Personally i think The Ox is getting better and better and I’d be gutted to see him go. Don’t want Jack to go either! Sign ’em up!
I think Wenger sees the ox as a first team player this season. I’d certainly play him over Bellerin atm. Playing him at wingback will develop his defensive awareness, and it’s technically a midfield position. Wenger even has precedent using midfielders like this (Ramsey a few seasons ago comes to mind). Maybe (real shocker this) the whole situation is being over-analysed just a tad…
Good news in the short term but we really need to get these players signed up ASAP
I think he’s willing to sell Ox.
I.d rather see Ozil sold
Despite all the rhetoric about change Wenger is just repeating past mistakes by refusing to buy the players the team needs. His refusal to buy a CB meant we started the season without an experienced CB & not buying a DM meant we had to play Elneny who simply isn’t good enough. Everyone apart from Wenger can see what we need. We didn’t finish 5th & get hammered 5-1 twice by Bayern just because we needed a better striker or left back. If we’re not going to buy a DM & CB then we might aswell sell Alexis, Ozil, Ox… Read more »
For a 24-25 year old elneny is pretty consistent and reliable. Once his confidence improves i hope he will become an asset. Artetas role in the team was almost to the point the same. And he did it brilliantly. No reason elneny cant do the same but with probably the best engine around. The guy runs and runs and covers and presses and harries and keeps things ticking over. People bemoan our midfield fragility and lack of effort yet they turn their nose up at a perfectly good player. Not everyone needs to pirouhette like sanchez(who loses the ball alot… Read more »
What CB did you want that has transferred this summer that would have improved the squad if CB what we already have? Bonucci, you really think he would have came? Rudiger, you think he would have been an improvement especially at his price? same with Lindelof? Same with the DM? You would rather have Arsenal put their efforts into trying to get a DM rather then Lemar? Seri? or a type like that? Or get get both and bench Xhaka? Get a grip. Chelsea doesn’t have good squad depth for a run in PL and CL. They don’t really care… Read more »
So when we lose all 3 next year on a free, do you guys think that Wenger and Co. will spend $200mn to replace them next summer?
How many times has Wenger stated that purchasing a bunch of players isn’t good for the team etc?
We will once again enter into a transition/rebuilding period.
$$?!?
Everytime I convince myself we don’t need him he comes out with a statement like this that makes me wonder.
Spot on about the differences between what Arsene said. He said he “wanted Giroud to stay” and we all know he almost left.
With Sanchez he said he is staying.
Although, this is Arsene and Arsenal. Nothing shocks me anymore.
Fundamental difference between losing Alexis potentially and losing Ox.
Not bc the Ox has more potential being younger.
BUT that we risk selling Ox to a PL title contender.
With Alexis he will not be sold if it is CIty but if PSG (or offshore), we will consider it very strongly.
The last thing we want is to sell on to a title contender like City and the Ox (who is threatening to hit fantastic form) goes on to help them clinch it.
That will truly be daft.
This is a player who brings us a lot of dynamism. Personally I think the should hold at left wing back with portfolio on right too. The flexibility is very useful. We should therefore have Bellerin (and young Nelson IMO) on the right and Ox with Kolasinac rotating left wing back. Should we need more direct crosses in from right, he can be switched. Ox had the most possession regains for us against Leicester and the most successful take ons. A couple of times he put the wrong final application but many times, he pushed us forward. He also had… Read more »