Fonte wants Ox back

According to this Mirror article, Jose Fonte has been attempting to lure Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back from the Arse. Apparently doesn’t want to go to another London club out for respect for the Arse (West Ham are also interested).

Don’t know how much truth there is in this one. Seems pretty light on sources.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/southamptons-alex-oxlade-chamberlain-chase-7726177

Think it may well hinge on whether Arsene stays or not. Imagine the Ox wants to play more than he is this season.

We sold him in League One, where naturally, he was a star. If those reports are true, then Fonte rates him, but he hasn’t had that much game time in the Premier League due to injury and/or not being selected. Are we making an assumption that he is good enough to cut it at this level?

Genuine question. I personally haven’t seen enough of him since the move to make the call.

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I’m sure he can be very successful in the prem but I wouldn’t want to pay more then we sold him for.

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If Mane was going yes if not no.

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Difficult one. He was excellent in his time with us, and showed so much raw potential.

So sad the way modern football is though. The “Big Clubs” snap up all the blossoming talents way before they’re ready to move, the money and the bright lights and fame lure them out of their footballing cradles, and if they’re lucky, they get stuck on a bench somewhere and make the odd appearance here and there. Never given a consistent enough run in the side to make progress, and right there is where their development stalls.

Such a shame that most football agents (and to be fair player’s families too) are such greedy cunts, only thinking about their pockets rather than what is best for our young easily influenced players’ development.

What could Alex have been like now, if he’d been allowed to stay with us and work on his game with regular first team appearances, in an environment tailored to bring on and improve young players?

We’ll never know.

He’s had too little opportunities (through injury and Arsene) to show if he’s really came on at all from the time he left.

All depends on how much Arsenal are prepared to let him go for. If we can get him for what we sold him for (or a bit less) – could well be worth taking a chance on. And like Barry says – if Mane is offski – Alex would be a ready-made replacement.

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Would be a great addition to the squad. He would give us more width and be a great supply for Austin and Pelle.

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Though nowhere near the level of Lallana’s wantaway antics, there was something distasteful about the way that Oxlade-Chamberlain (and particularly his old man Skate Vader) treated Saints when they were looking to move him on. Alright, as has been alluded to before, a completely different situation then. We were a league one side when he left and he was guaranteed a chance at Premier League football.

It could be an excellent move if the Ox returns knowing that the grass isn’t necessarily greener on the big club turf. Assuming he hits form and plays well for us, I don’t think he’d be as eager to do the offs if other clubs express an interest. Would actually be nice to get one of them back too.

I do wonder how the papers will sell it, though. “Arsenal flop” would be my guess. Doesn’t bother me too much, may actually motivate him and send a message to other players that nestling in the bowels of a big squad isn’t great for your career. Bertrand knows that all too well.

Some potentially interesting precedents would be set with this move.

Nice that Fonte wants him, perhaps he will help pay for him too?

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I thought that the fact that it was Fonte that was mentioned interesting and potentially encouraging if true.

If Fonte is really trying to chat Ox up back to St Marys, there’s all sorts of happy conclusions one may be tempted to draw. First off, nice to have a captain that cares so much. Lallana would have probably asked if he could get him into Arsenal. Second, I’d personally surprised (and pleased) if Fonte has this level of influence. It’s one thing to bark orders at your team-mates, quite another to have the clout to get an ex-player back, or at least feel confident enough to try.

I’m sure he’s not acting independently and believes he’s in charge of signings.

Hehe. Me too :slight_smile:

As I said earlier, that Mirror article ain’t big on sources, but it would make sense for Fonte to be involved, even informally, in this move. The Ox never played under Koeman, but he did play alongside Jose.

Good, we wouldnt want another Terry Paine in the camp would we :wink:

any sentence that starts The Mirror reports doesn’t inspire me with too much faith in the content that follows.

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Does he bring his old man along as baggage? We dont need him as well.

Even if he does, you’d have to conclude that Alex would question his judgement a bit more. The Arsenal move was great on a number of levels, mostly financially, but his progression seems to have halted there recently.

This Mirror piece reckons we’re ready to offer quite a bit.

Southampton are ready to make Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain their highest-paid player this summer.

Ambitious Saints have made the Arsenal midfielder their No.1 transfer target and will also offer him the vice-captaincy as part of their charm offensive to bring him back to St Mary’s.

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Mirror Mirror on the wall

Who will be highest paid of the all?

The Ox or his Skate of a dad…

sorry, crap but showed promise to start with given the Mirror ref, sort of petered out in the middle and became realy shit by the end…

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Originally posted by @pap

This Mirror piece reckons we’re ready to offer quite a bit.

Southampton are ready to make Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain their highest-paid player this summer.

Ambitious Saints have made the Arsenal midfielder their No.1 transfer target and will also offer him the vice-captaincy as part of their charm offensive to bring him back to St Mary’s.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/alex-oxlade-chamberlain-southamptons-no1-7739539

Classic Mirror article. Says Saints really want him, and want to beat off W Ham and City and “Here is what they are prepared to offer him”.

Answer: “a big contract”. No shit. Oh, and the vice captaincy. So they know jack all as usual.

Not about the Fee it’s the wages.

With Morgan on 120k a WEEK at Man Ure, pretty sure AOC will be on at least 75% more than our highest paid player.

Would anyone on here take a 50% pay cut in the prime of life?

Footballing wise, when you look at our most effective style of play we have Mane terrorising defences with pace but also with a developing maturity, does AOC actually have that? Wasn’t Arse playing him in a DM role at times last season?

AOC and Mane as rotation players makes a great deal of sense, replacing Mane if he leaves with AOC IMHO would be a risk due to his injury record, and I am sure that the Black Box team has already spotted Mane’s replacement somewhere on the planet.

So no, he won’t come as a squad player and I would be worried by his Injury/Form record if he was a replacement on top end wages.

Now, a more important question is Tadic. Speedster & Trickster - that mix is important,Gaston could have been, Tadic could have been (IF he fvcking had a left foot or actually ever got a shot away)

Depending on the opposition we need THAT mix of options - sometimes Mane sometimes a trickster

So nice idea, not for me