Despite catching the eye more than a wicketkeeper who has a machine spurting cricket-ball sized eyes at him for two hours non-stop, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain isn’t getting carried away.
He’s impressed greatly since he was thrust into the team against Manchester United just a couple of weeks ago and already there’s talk of him being called up to the England squad for the European Championships this summer.
But The Ox, while obviously a precocious, ferocious and explodocious talent, is also an intelligent, well mannered and, most importantly, self-aware young man. He knows it’s early days in his career and he’s more than willing to put in the study required to ensure it’s as good as it can be.
“I’m one of the least experienced players in the squad so any player who gives me a comment always helps me, whether it is positive or constructive criticism,” he told the club’s official website.
“I listen to everybody. People like Thierry and Robin who score goals and are attacking players like myself, you can always learn a lot from them. That’s all I do, I listen and learn.
“I have belief in myself and in my own ability. I just know that I have to keep working hard and learn off the boys, and then hopefully the rest will come. At the moment it’s going quite well for me so I’m just going to keep working hard.”
Arsene Wenger and Robin van Persie have urged caution, to try and protect him from the media’s hype machine. When a young player comes along and plays well there’s a tendency for the praise to go rather too far, but when that young player is English he is expected to be both awesome at football and lift the spirits of a nation – until such time as the tabloids decide it’s time to take him down a peg or two for being too uppity have been made uppity by them in the first place.
And of his Euro 2102 chances, Oxlade-Chamberlain said, “Obviously it would be very nice but I just have to keep my feet on the ground and take it step by step.”
And once he continues to do that, he’ll make good progress.
In Ox we trust.
Great to see that the Ox has his feet firmly on the ground as opposed to having his head up his own ring piece unlike a lot of other young talents we could name.
what’s an Oxlaide ?
About 4 bricks an hour….. Maybe I should go
Aliksh never lishens to me 🙁
If he can ignore the hype and keep his feet on the ground, he will become the greatest player thats ever kicked a ball. Fact
But he’ll be piss poor at set-pieces.
I think we have his dad to thank for his grounded attitude. Mark would have seen it all and heard it all, so will be very able to advise and assist his son.
Calm head. Hope he doesnt have his Mr. 15percent composing rhymes of greener pastures soon as he get to the top, where I believed he’s destined for.
I really will be impressed if he manages to get into the Euro 2102 squad (especially seeing as it would be a World Cup year).
I’ll leave now..
i would be surprised also, as he would be elderly when Euro 2102 comes along 😛
For Arsenal sake hopefully he won’t be featuring for England so soon. If he goes to the Euro, then its almost silly to not pick him for the Olympics (which I’m pretty confident he will feature in). Would rather he come back for next season all fresh and raring to go!
Anyone know who AOC’s agent is?
Let’s just hope he doesn’t share one with Na$ri/Cashley/Tevez/Rooney or any of the other greedy liittle fuckers, & then he can stay at the Arsenal as long as he likes…
I don’t think there are rude jokes to be made about the word Ox. More articles about Coquelin please.
Aoc is a player dat can play attacken football and is skillful to ninety mints game.
What’s a 90 mint? Like a polo or XXXX mint?
can I have one?
I cant understand why people are so obsessed with spelling mistakes considering there are people from non-English speaking nations who reads and comments here.
Whoa, it was a joke. Maybe you need to sit for a minute and have a 90 mint to calm down
Top young man as a person and as a player, mixture in his game between Rooney and Ronaldo.
To be honest I did not notice his similarity with Cristiano until someone showed me this youtube, see and judge by yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2PIIiyxoA8
great vid!
You know how they say every player looks good on you tube, in that vid The Ox looked incredible.
wow, i never realised how good the boy is, ironically my man utd supporting younger brother was raving about him all summer thinking they would get him.
As usual i just ignore anything he has to say about footie, but he was right for once.
Definitely a shining talent and bright prospect of english football. Considering the going rate for an English talent his age for an attacking player, I think its safe to say we got ourselves a bargain. Personally his dribbling remind me more of a Benzema. More direct, determined and with more pace than Ronaldo. I hate to say this but his wing play is quite similar to that on the game FIFA. Its almost he knows when to cut in and how much space he has between defenders. As if he sees the game from the top. I would love him… Read more »
PS
Benzema dribbles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwHC7Enj-ZA
and thanks for the video Left.
I also thought there is that Cr****o similarity in his style. Looking at that video from 3:00 to 3:06… its almost scary at the what the possibilities are with The Ox’s talent
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Nice to see another level headed young English lad. The majority of overseas youngsters have the right attitude but in an Englishman its sadly uncommon. Good luck to him.
I remember the skepticism when we signed him, “not another fucking kid with potential” were the cries. (I include myself in this line of thinking at the time)
Now he looks like he could rip every defense in the league a gaping new arsehole wound, and the fans are rabid to see him start or at least be involved in every game.
What a fucking signing!
ONE ARSENE WENGER, RED ARMY, OH ARSENAL WE LOVE YOU, so on and so forth…
Thumbs up for the honesty “not another fucking kid with potential”.
His face and words tells everything about him. A nice and intelligent kid with a bright future. Rare in football world. Stay like this and he will become a world class player.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a player who can “chop” the ball and change direction as well as he is doing now. Except maybe C.Ronaldo. But he is a ginormous cunt so that hardly counts.
I agree.. I prefer to compare him to Messi 🙂
Anyway, he is one of the players that can lift the audience spirits, and that is special. I can see a Player of the Year in Van Persie and Young Player of the Year in Ox at the end of the season. If it happens, surely it would be fitting for Arsenal to at least win one of the PL, CL, or FA Cup.
I’m gettting to carried away. I can’t wait for another Arsenal match…
Except that Messi plays for the theiving, cheapskate Cuntalonians.
Which makes him also something of a ginormous cunt by association.
From here on every pundit will roll out the line about how Wenger compared him to Rooney and Cesc every time he plays.
Just pray to whatever God you believe in that RVP will be on the same team as him for a long time!
The impression I get from RvP when he talks about OxChambo is that he really enjoys playing with him.
You could argue that both RvP and the Ox are the most “naturally” talented attackers on the first team. Arshavin has some of that natural flair but he’s lost his mojo.
Right now he is still just a talented youngster, though.