Arsenal: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain transfer crossing into the absurd

Arsenal have had enough contrived drama this transfer window, but now that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s saga is getting absurd, there’s more.

There aren’t many things more annoying than when the tabloids get a hold of a story that has some pertinence and they just blow it up and make it infinitely worse than we could have imagined. Such is the case with Arsenal’s current situation.

With the Alexis Sanchez situation getting stale, something had to be drummed up, and seeing as how Mesut Ozil is a happy camper at the Emirates, they went for the next in line – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The young Englishman has not been able to reach a new contract with his long-time club and to the tabloids out there, this means certain anarchy.

According to the reports out there, Oxlade-Chamberlain is looking for wages around £150,000 a week, far above his current wages of £65,000. Earlier in the summer, reports indicated that a deal of £100,000 was going to be agreed upon, but as reports typically do, that one fluttered away like a drunk butterfly and was never heard from again.

That in and of itself is a circus, trying to deduce what wages he wants and what the club is willing to offer, but when you take it further and look at the clubs we are supposedly selling him to, you get an even bigger absurdity splash in the face.

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Liverpool and Chelsea? While we can’t say for certain that Arsene Wenger would never again sell such a vital player to a direct rival, we can look at some more of the context and see that it’s ludicrous that either Liverpool or Chelsea would be offering the Ox those wages.

If Liverpool were to grant his request, he would become the second-highest paid player on the team, soon to be first when Coutinho inevitably leaves.

At Chelsea, he would be fourth, just behind Cesc Fabregas, but that would change when Diego Costa leaves. He would make more than Chelsea stars like Willian and N’Golo Kante and that just doesn’t seem feasible.

Not just that, but the fee we are talking about is just £35m. In a world where Kyle Walker costs £50m, I have trouble believing that a young, energetic and prolific Oxlade-Chamberlain only fetches 70% of what Walker did. Just another reason to be dubious about these reports.

Next: 3 Defining Positional Battles Of 2017/18

Oxlade-Chamberlain will stay at Arsenal because he is finally getting what he wants. He wanted to be a midfielder. Guess what? He is.

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