UK Edition
Arsenal offer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain £180,000-a-week - but Chelsea confident they can lure England midfielder to Stamford Bridge
Chelsea are growing increasingly optimistic that they will sign Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain before the transfer window shuts, despite Arsenal making a huge £180,000-a-week offer that would place the England midfielder among their highest-ever wage earners.
Manager Arsene Wenger has also told Oxlade-Chamberlain that he has a “responsibility” to Arsenal after being nurtured by the club since joining from Southampton at the age of 17 and said that he was now ready to become one of the main pillars of the team.
Arsenal, though, fear that he will turn down the latest offer after already telling Wenger that he will not sign a new deal and, as reported by Telegraph Sport, Chelsea have launched a £35 million bid.
Oxlade-Chamberlain met with Wenger on Thursday and was offered the chance to more than double his wages to a package worth around £180,000 a week. With Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil also prevaricating on even bigger offers, that would place him behind only Alexandre Lacazette on Arsenal’s current wage structure.
Arsenal will clearly feel that this is a very competitive offer given Oxlade-Chamberlain has scored nine goals in his 130 Premier League appearances and only really forced his way into the starting team over the past year.
Yet if Oxlade-Chamberlain does not sign, Wenger and Arsenal could effectively be faced with the choice of selling him to Chelsea now or watching him move to Stamford Bridge on a free transfer next summer. The decision will also have to be taken in the context of potentially losing even more valuable players next year for nothing in Sanchez and Ozil.
Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte is personally pushing the club’s bid to sign Oxlade-Chamberlain, who can play at wing-back, in central midfield or on the wing. That versatility, along with Oxlade-Chamberlain’s home-grown status, is particularly appealing to the Italian.
Wenger, though, has not given up hope on persuading him to commit. “I want him to stay and be one of the big players of the future of this club,” he said. “He is one of the players this team has to be built around. I want him to commit to the club and to be one of the carrier of the values of our team.
“I think we invested a lot of time, confidence and money on players like Alex, who we bought at a young age. For me, they have a responsibility for the future of this club because Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be one of the big English players in the coming years. I personally am highly determined to keep him here.”
Wenger refused to say whether Chelsea have yet made a formal bid but did not deny their interest. Chelsea want to complete a £100m treble before the transfer window shuts by signing Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Drinkwater from Leicester City and Everton’s Ross Barkley.
Conte is hopeful Chelsea can close a deal for midfielder Drinkwater, while the Premier League champions are prepared to battle with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur over Barkley.
Wenger also conceded defeat on Thursday in his attempt to sign Thomas Lemar from Monaco but refused to rule out the departure of centre-back Shkodran Mustafi over the next week.
Arsenal have had three bids rejected by Monaco for Lemar but the main focus now for Wenger relates to players who might leave and, having already sold one centre-back in Gabriel, he was noticeably vague on the subject of Mustafi amid interest from Inter Milan.
Asked if he expects to sell Mustafi, Wenger said: “It’s difficult for me to speak about any individual cases because we are now in the final seven days of the transfer market. It’s always very difficult to predict what will happen there. You have to make quick and sharp decisions, and you cannot plan that and come out in the press conference with how you will respond to any solicitation.”
He was more definitive, though, on Lemar. “It’s dead because Monaco has closed the door.” As well as Sanchez, Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arsenal also have Jack Wilshere in the final year of his contract. Wenger says that it is now for his midfielder to prove he merits a new deal. “If he gets back to his best and wants to stay, we have to sit down, I think, later in the season,” he said. “I don’t rule that. I’m open with Jack. We have honest conversations. I’m open to what is the best for him. He is at the stage of his career where he needs to play and I can’t guarantee him today that.”