Arsenal: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain frustration a club failure

Arsenal can’t seem to lock down Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, despite a will to stay, and now it’s rumored that he is growing frustrated. Club. Failure.

I spent a good deal of time yesterday griping about the contract situations here at Arsenal. The season has been over for nearly a month now and nobody has signed a new deal. While that certainly isn’t the end of the world, the fact that handfuls of players need new deals before next year, it has an added importance.

Various rumors have been surfacing that Mesut Ozil is ready to sign a new deal, despite not getting the raise that he wants, but nothing is official. And until it’s official, it’s meaningless.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is in the same boat. Reports surfaced that he had agreed to a new deal worth £100,000 a week, a significant pay raise for the Englishman. But since then, things have only gotten worse.

Now we are hearing that the Ox is frustrated that the deal is taking so long to get done. And why shouldn’t he be? Few rose to the occasion like Oxlade-Chamberlain last season. When the club was down and out and trying new things, it was Ox who served as a conduit of sorts to spark the club back into life.

And if he is as willing to sign as they say he is, which there is no reason to doubt he would be, then having to wait would absolutely lead to that thing they call frustration.

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Which is an absolute club failing.

I hate to gripe about the summer thus far, because it’s just begun and we already have Sead Kolasinac, who made the Bundesliga team of the year, but everyone was waiting to see what kind of contracts we could knock out. That’s been the big story. So many stars, budding stars and important players needed to re-up their deal.

And so far it’s been complete silence other than these dull murmurs of negotiations.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is now being linked to a move away from the Gunners as his frustrations grow. While I don’t buy into that as much, it does become a concern. What Alexis Sanchez said about his needs should reverberate with a lot of these guys. They want to be invested in.

Especially in Ox’s case. This guy has been moved all over the place for the team, never being allowed an extended run in his preferred position. For as much faith as Arsene Wenger shows in a lot of his players, some of whom do not deserve it, Ox has never been the benefactor of excessive faith.

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He has had to fight and claw for each minute. At this point in his career, he needs to be invested in by the club.

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