According to The Telegraph, Arsenal are increasingly confident that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain can be persuaded to sign a new deal at the club.
It’s also reported by Jeremy Wilson that Arsene Wenger will not sell Olivier Giroud until a final decision has been made about Alexis Sanchez’s future at the club. For his part, the boss says he wants to keep the French striker, although he admits that squad rotation can be frustrating for his players.
Both the Ox and the HFB have been included in the Gunners’ 25-man pre-season tour squad and are pencilled in for game time in this week’s two friendlies in Sydney.
Chamberlain, who has 12 months left on his current deal, is reportedly coveted by Liverpool. It’s believed the player wants a guarantee of more game time in the centre of midfield having ended last season playing as a wing-back. He’s also chasing a significant pay rise.
Marseille, West Ham and Everton have all shown an interest in Giroud. It’s claimed the Gunners could secure at least £20 million for the France international who is under contract at the Emirates two more years after signing an extension in January. Arsenal haven’t ruled out cashing in on the 30-year-old although the boss, unsurprisingly, said exactly the opposite when quizzed on the issue in Sydney.
“We extended his contract last year so our resolution is to keep him here, because we extended his contract,” he told local media.
“He has a great value to the squad and I think as well he is a great lover of the club. He loves the club and has always been very determined to stay.
“It’s always the same problem – when you have only one striker, people ask why you don’t buy another one. When you have two or three, they say that they will be unhappy because you have too much competition.
“We are in a job where we are very lucky to do what we love but as well we have chosen a competitive job, that means the players have to accept competition and my decisions as well, unfortunately!”
The future of Alexis Sanchez will definitely play a part in any decision. The Chilean has so far turned down a £275,000 a week offer and is being heavily linked with Manchester City. Wenger doesn’t want to sell to a rival and says he’s happy to risk losing the striker on a free next summer. That could change if Arsenal can lure Monaco into selling Thomas Lemar. So far, three bids for the France attacker have been rejected.
It definitely feels like we’re in the middle of property chain at the moment. This early in the transfer window things tend to grind to a halt before racing to a head in the final days.
Go away, come back at the start of the season. Then we will know for sure and won’t have to worry about the speculation.
I hope they both stay. Giroud is a great option, and the Ox has come on a lot recently. I’d miss the old “Ox crosses it for Giroud to nod home” routine.
I think we can attribute 12 – 15 points last season to Ox & Giroud subbing on together about 60 minutes into a match.
Does anyone know if anywhere is showing the friendlies? Usually they are shown on Arsenal Player but I haven’t seen anything advertising that.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/watch-alexandre-lacazettes-arsenal-debut-live
The 2 games this week are live on channel 32 (SBS free to air) in Australia. Not aware of anywhere else though.
SBS
If you can get the Arsenal app you can see all fixtures.
In a perfect world, I’d love us to quietly extend the contract of Alexis, keep it under wraps and allow Pep the cunt to get increasingly confident as the window nears closure; heck, I’ll even say we start negotiations with citeh, then just as we were almost agreeing a price a day to the window closing announce he has extended and fuck his plans well and proper!
Oh the joy that will give me!
Have Alexis be photographed walking around Manchester holding a pen for some reason.
That is so mean. Me like
Kinghenrythe14th was the cake, but your comment straight killed me.”walking around with a pen for no reason”. Lol???
Haha brilliant! Tell Pep we’ll buy him lunch as well!
You’ve got “A CUNNING PLAN…”…:-)
I dont think there’s any way we’d sell Giroud – and nor should we.
I’ll pack his bags.
I just watched the assists reel on the video page here. I have to agree. No way should you sell that.
We paid ten million euros for that. Even by 2012’s rates that’s an incredible return for our money.
Aussie fans chanting “Coq! Coq! Coq!..” at Sydney airport as Coquelin walked out-
priceless!
Long live the Aussie battlers!
Ox sounds like Theo with his demands to play in a specific position and, like Theo, hasn’t really convinced!!! Anyway Giroud will stay, definitely a good thing, and all this waffle about Wenger being happy to let him go if Sanchez signs a new deal (despite Wenger saying otherwise) is disrespectful to both Giroud and Wenger!!
Well said – pure bullshit speculation about Giroud.
Wenger and Giroud deserve disrespect. Not good enough for the club but staying on.
Our greatest manager, probably ever.
You – our greatest troll (unless you are very stupid), probably ever.
Yes, he is. He is also tarnishing his legacy by clinging to his position of power, with no real reason to believe we will get better. Only blind faith.
You like us being in the position of elite mediocrity, Pedant?
Mate, this fad has faded.
Do you like being in a postion of elite negativity, Domi?
John, it has not (faded) and I don’t like it. I’d rather have us winning things with the resources we have, used by the board and the manager who know what they’re doing. Then I’d be excited about the next season.
I am rather like this, than become optimistic and positive (which I did for many years before). I lost faith in the man. Call it a defense mechanism. Happy for you guys that you can.
If the position is the issue and not the salary, then Europa League provides the opportunity to experiment in the group stage.
Thats why you need the confidence to rotate like Ferguson (not the cat from new girl) did at united… Everyone is fresh, happy and you actually win stuff.
Here, Arsene doesnt have enough faith in alot of squad members, so we get a situation where we keep tons of players who dont play and are unhappy.
I’m just here for the New Girl reference
This is based on the myth that no other team has selection issues. You forget the number of times both Rooney and Ronaldo almost lost their balls over nonsense at man u. They’ve had their fare share of problems dealing with star players, even during saf’s tenure
At this point I’d rather Chamberlain was sold and replaced by either Lemar or a top quality centre midfielder which I believe should be our next signing. He doesn’t have a nailed down position and he’s been there for years. If they can get 25 million from someone with a year left on his contract I say do it. Same goes for Walcott.
With Giroud, I’d rather he stayed as a back up option. Despite his limitations he comfortably scores more than Welbeck.
Just 2 more days, till I get my fix…
So we gave Chamberlain a massive pay rise based on some core and potential. The deal has run out with out realising that potential.
So we should add him an even bigger deal because potentially he has some more potential to play a new position
Sky Sports are reporting, according to their sources, “Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s chances of signing a new Arsenal deal are virtually nil”.
Hmmmm
Ox seems to be leaving, I wouldn’t mind that all that much but I am – because a decent replacement probably won’t arrive.
Just pointing out Sky Sports reporting Ox contract talks have stalled and virtually no chance of him signing on. Don’t kill the messenger…
But sky sports deserve a darn good thrashing ?
To be fair to Theo, when his contract renewals come up at least he bangs the goals in left right and centre (granted he doesn’t always do that for the entirety of said contract). I don’t think The Ox is in a position to demand higher wages based on performances though. Sure he improved last season, however he’s still nowhere near consistent enough or free from injury long enough to command top dollar.
Also, what’s going on with Özil’s deal?
Ox should be given a run a proper run at CM to prove himself and if it doesn’t work out he can leave and try somewhere else. I think that’s fair enough. What we shouldn’t be doing is playing these young players in positions they don’t actually have a future in. I think it’s fair to say now that it doesn’t really help their development
Oxlade feels like the same type of loss we’ve had before in Hleb, Song and Flamini. They all missed us more than we missed them.
You can add Cesc to that list.
Of course, without Carzola we are still looking for a central midfield solution.
However, Cesc has been reduced to a super-sub during his prime years!
Cesc won La Liga and two premier league titles since leaving us. You can remove him from the list!
Song and Hleb won La Liga as well ^^
Hleb even won the CL
Sure, and Hleb was integral…
SO lets say we keep last years Sanchez, Ozil and Ox +Giroud and we most most likely sell Szczesny, Ospina, Debuchy(free), Gibbs, Jenksinon, Wilshere(?) and Perez… This would mean that we would still need a back up GK(maybe Martinez will do or Ospina stays), back up RB (OX moves position and I don’t trust Chambers or Gabriel out there) and a RW/AM(Lemar/Mahrez) would be great as I’m still unconvinced by Walcott and Im not sure if Iwobi is ready to step up permanent 1st team. Thats still a large turn around of players, the like of which we haven’t seen… Read more »
Yes..Ox hasnt nailed down a concrete position that suits him. But i think that was concluded recently when he played down the right. It definitely suits him. He can cross, dribble down the line & has the exp going middle once in a while when ramsey is out of post. A competition between 2 speedsters in ox & bellerin will only means good thing. We have 2 Dani Alves (in the making). Give the ox his well deserved pay rise. But the ox first has to accept that he is now a modern WB & no longer a CM which… Read more »
we are the only big club that is nice to underachievers like the ox. he ‘s been around for seven years and we have to be lucid he is not the crack we all have dreamed of, he is a decent squad player.no more no less. if we can cash in on him be it and let’s get a mahrez or lemar or a max arnold .
HFB ‘a great lover of the club’. I wonder how seriously we will take the Europa league, I say we use it to blood the youngsters. I’m worried about the impact it will have on fitness. Maybe with this squad we can comfortably fight for both.
a great lover ‘at’ the club?
I call bullshite on Giroud’s and Alexis’ futures being linked. This smells fishy.
Giroud and Perez, maybe.
It makes no sense to me why some people continously want to sell Giroud. He is more efficient in front of goal than Welbeck. He adds a different dimension to the team up top and his lack of pace has been no detriment to France. With France, Giroud is up top as they are spoilt for choices second line. With Arsenal, that is reason to feel we can play BOTH Lacazette and Giroud too. Flexibility is key. Until Welbeck sharpens up in front of goal (He has miss some sitters), Best to have Giroud around (particularly if Alexis does leave)… Read more »
No. Nobody says “they’ll be unhappy because of too much competition” Wenger that’s just your delusion of “killing” players when you make a wonderful class sign in their position.
Well I my humble opinion, if a player doesn’t rise to that challenge they werr dead to begin with.
Walcott’s a great example of this. The closest he’s come to being challenged for position is oxlade Chamberlain who in terms of results is underwhelming. The lack of competitioñ shows and he only really has a fire in his belly in contract renewal seasons.
I can’t remember a Summer when there has been as much activity/speculation on both sides of the transfer market for us (maybe the Summer 2011 when we sold Cesc, Nasri and Clichy and had those last minute buys of Per, Arteta and Park along with Chamberlin and Gervinho) with top players coming and going. Unfortunately this speculation on who is going will last until the window closes and then of course we will have it all year just like we had with Wenger and his contract situation this year. That is modern football though I guess.