The transfer window is coming to a close and you’d expect some teams to spend some more money to improve their teams. With two games already played in the Premier League, many managers already have a clearer picture of the investments they need to make as well as those deadwoods they need to offload.
Arsenal is faced with such a dilemma with the manager recently conceding that he has ‘too many players’, which clearly means that Arsenal is on a campaign to let go of some of its dead weight. Yaya Sanogo and a couple of youngsters, Stefan O’Connor, Kostas Pileas, Kristopher da Graca, Dan Crowley and Chris Willock left on free transfers, while the likes of Wojciech Szczesny, Gabriel Paulista, Ismael Bennacer and Jon Toral left for undisclosed fees.
Arsenal seems to be the only team Monaco can’t do business with, and Wenger has also confirmed that the move for Thomas Lemar is ‘dead’. With the manager also stating that he’s happy with his current squad, the chances of any other additions will be slim to none. This means that Wenger has to sort out the underlying issues in the squad, with the most pressing being the futures of some of the club’s star players, like Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is one of the players with a couple of months left on his deal and it’s believed that he has made his intentions clear not to sign a new deal with the club. Wenger and Arsenal are desperate to keep him, and according to the Sun, Arsenal is offering the Ox a deal worth £180,000 per week, in a desperate attempt to keep him,
“I want Alex to stay at the club and to be one of the big players of the future of this club. He’s one of the players this team needs to be built around in the future. Personally, I want him to commit to the club and to be one of the carriers of the values of our team.
We invested a lot of time and confidence and money in players like Alex Chamberlain who we bought at a young age. For me, they have a responsibility for the future of this club. Alex Chamberlain will be one of the big English players in the coming years and I personally am highly determined to keep him here at the club.” – Arsene Wenge
These are the words of a manager that clearly wants the Englishman to remain with the club for years to come but is the Ox really worth 180,000 quid per week? With Chelsea being the only team interested in his services, a sale to them would not really go down well with the fans, as it would come off as the Gunners strengthening a rival (yet again) but a part of me doesn’t feel we should keep Chamberlain for that amount. In the past seven seasons, Ox has played 196 games for the club, scoring 20 goals. His best goal return actually came last season, with 6 strikes in 45 games.
Those are the numbers of a guy that will be set to become the club’s second highest earner after Alexandre Lacazette, should he decide to sign the new deal.Ox is a decent player with great pace and a good delivery, but I don’t believe he has done enough at the club to justify such a fat salary. Another challenge we can potentially face with this deal is the fact that it would be hard to offload him if he’s seemed surplus to requirements.
With the Gunners challenging for four trophies this season, Wenger will need every players at his disposal, including the Ox.
Sayonara
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