Arsenal: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain adds name to list of disgraces

Arsenal are suddenly dead set on selling Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, as they should be after his recent shenanigans. Add him to the list of disgraces.

Arsenal and Chelsea have agreed on a fee to send Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Stamford Bridge, according the SkySports, meaning that the Ox joins a list of Gunner disgraces that we had thought was closed.

There are people out there saying they can’t blame Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for wanting to leave Arsenal. I was of that mindset once. For about a week. And then I woke up and realized just how much the Gunners have given Oxlade-Chamberlain and how little he has given in return.

So let me lay it out for you.

Oxlade-Chamberlain came to Arsenal when he was 18. He erupted onto the scene, being called the future of English football. He was supposed to be a world class footballer by the time he was in his early twenties.

But injuries got in the way. And they continued to get in the way. When he was healthy, he was inconsistent and when he finally found consistency, he got hurt again. It was a vicious cycle that hasn’t been cleared yet. While he did fall into a good degree of consistency last year, making more appearances than ever before (45).

He also scored his most goals ever that year (6). You can already see what I’m getting at. Oxlade-Chamberlain has been in and out of the physio since his arrival and had never surpassed four goals before last year. Even to this day he has never scored more than two Premier League goal in any season.

Finally, finally, last year, he found his way into consistency at right back. It seemed to be the perfect fit for his skill set and he thrived in it. But with a year left on his contract, he needed a new deal and nothing happened.

Reports indicated that the Gunners even offered him £180,000, nearly tripling his wages, just to keep him at the club and he turned down that too.

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And against Liverpool, he could be seen having a nice job on the pitch, hardly contributing anything and having to be substituted before it got any worse.

Arsenal, and Arsene Wenger, have put so much faith and patience into developing this kid and he repays them by getting a big head the minute he finally gets to some sort of consistency and demanding a transfer.

And don’t tell me the club or the manager let him down. That’s crap. You can say that about Alexis Sanchez, absolutely, because it’s true. He’s given a ton for the club. But Oxlade-Chamberlain is only still relevant because of the patience Wenger had in him. He has missed more games than he has played and only managed one or two Premier League goals in every single season.

Now he’s too good for the club? £35m is a steal of Oxlade-Chamberlain, and I mean a steal as in he is worth that much on projection alone. And projecting is a dangerous game. His ceiling may be higher than most players out there, but we have spent six years trying to get him to help him up that ladder and he has only recently begun to make advances.

And those advances are all thanks to the patience of the club and the manager.

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He won’t find that same patience out of Antonio Conte. So he better hope to God he can latch on really quick or he may be hanging out at the local bowling alley with Diego Costa.

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