Arsenal Seal Deal For Oxlade-Chamberlain
Arsenal have signed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton.
An upfront fee of £6.5m has been agreed in a deal that will rise to at least £12m.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, 17, underwent a medical earlier today and has signed a long-term contract.
Arsenal have pursued Oxlade-Chamberlain for the best part of 10 months, with Arsene Wenger and Chief Scout Steve Rowley rating the England U19 international as the best attacking player of his generation.
Attempts to sign the player fell through in January and at the start of the summer due to Southampton’s insistence on including a sell-on clause in the deal which Arsenal were reluctant to agree to.
By increasing the initial outlay from £5m to £6.5m, both clubs finally reached an agreement.
I am staggered that Wenger sees a deal of this magnitude for a 17 year-old winger as a priority.We desperately need a stronger defensive core,we will lose Song (possibly),Traore,Gervinho and Chamakh in January for an indeterminate period,we are already riddled with injuries and he takes a restricted budget and blows a considerable portion of it on someone who won’t be ready to play for the first team for at least two seasons and occupying a position where we have more capacity than anywhere else.Ye Gods!
The initial fee is £6.5m so that is all thatbleaves the transfer budget for now. Also, this lad is that good that he’s straight in first team squad, although may not feature much in PL. And there are more signings to come. Hands been tied over Cesc/Nasri saga and difficulty in selling Eboue, Bendtner, Almunia. So let’s be thankful that we’ve seen off interest from other clubs, as we did with Jenkinson, to sign one of the best young English talents around.