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Chelsea agree £35m fee with Arsenal for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Chelsea are closing in on the signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after agreeing a fee in the region of £35million with Arsenal for the England international.
Oxlade-Chamberlain will now discuss personal terms with the Blues and is expected to complete the switch across London before the transfer window shuts on Thursday night.
As reported by Telegraph Sport, Oxlade-Chamberlain rejected Arsenal’s last contract offer and told manager Arsene Wenger he wanted to leave the club before Sunday’s thrashing at Liverpool.
Wenger had insisted Oxlade-Chamberlain would not be sold earlier this summer, but it appears the Frenchman’s hand has now been forced.
Oxlade-Chamberlain will be granted special leave from England duty while he ties up his Chelsea move and could miss the World Cup qualifier against Malta.
The 24-year-old is part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad and is due to travel to Malta for the World Cup qualifier on Thursday – transfer deadline day.
But should talks and a medical drag towards deadline day, then Oxlade-Chamberlain could be left behind when the rest of the England squad travel.
Chelsea, though, will hope to wrap-up the signing of Oxlade-Chamberlain before Thursday, as they are also chasing deals for Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater, Everton’s Ross Barkley and Swansea City’s Fernando Llorente before the transfer window closes.
Southgate accepts that the timing of the deadline means he needs to be flexible and recognises that forcing Oxlade-Chamberlain, or anyone else, to travel to Malta with their club future in the balance would be counter-productive.
Having named a bigger than usual 28-man squad, Southgate has plenty of options if he has to let Oxlade-Chamberlain miss the Malta game and there is no guarantee the midfielder would start for England on Friday night in any case.
Fortunately for Southgate, Oxlade-Chamberlain is the only member of the England squad who currently looks like he could be involved in transfer negotiations this week.