From my limited viewings of him, he looks a good player though I have never thought of him as anything better than good. Chalobah on the other hand looked a much better prospect, and is now in the full England squad, along with Bertrand. Just can't work out what we are doing in the transfer market selling England quality players( for a pittance) and buying people no better for much bigger fees. Guess that's why I'm not working for a football club.
The more i think about this the more i feel we're overpaying. Last year of his contract, no specialist position and hasn't progressed in 6 years (Wenger has a part to play in that though). I think Conte will make him a better player but we should be halving the price, he's just rejected a contract. 35M because he's English probably.
Reported we're in for 35 for Ox and 30 for Drinkwater, while Sanchez is 70. 1 fabulous one is better than 2 good ones in my book ,and not too sure Drinkwater is much good either. Buggered what Conte sees in him, but he obviously sees something he likes to pay more than we got for Chalobah for someone 5 years older. On the other hand the very promising Jeremy Boga has gone to bloody Newcastle on loan, blimey we do some weird deals. He looked really good in our first team them, whoosh, he's gone.
I don't think you can read too much into the fee. Barca have just signed a kid who only scored 6 goals from an attacking position last year for well over 100 million. Last year of his contact yes, but the days of stealing players like that have long gone. If Liverpool were prepared to pay 30-40 million for him then we either pay that as well or lose him to a rival. Ox is premier league proven, England regular and can play in a variety of positions and young enough to improve. Its a solid albeit unspectacular piece of business if it comes off.
He's not though is he. He's barely played and he's barely been productive. Granted he's looked pretty nifty at wingback position but as a CM or a Winger he's not actually that good. A lot of hype. I think he's looked better than Moses at wingback but that is only a handful of appearances. Moses has been very good but i guess it'll be good for squad depth. For 35-40m quoted though, that's daylight robbery for someone on the last year of their contract. Surely theres better cheaper options out there. Even Walker was 50m and hes far better than Oxo cube. Especially when you think we sold matic for 40m
He's made enough premier league appearances to show he is capable of cutting it in this league as opposed to an outright foreigner though. He is also a utility player which is very useful when you have a relatively small squad. Admittedly he has not fulfilled his early potential yet but that's down to Wenger as much as anything else. I think Wenger's ability to bring on young talent is vastly over rated beyond giving them initial chances. Players stagnate at Arsenal. Just look at how players like Wilshire, Ox, Ramsay and Walcott have shown periods of brilliance at Arsenal but never consistency, lots of injuries, in and out of the team etc. I'm not getting too focused on the money side of things. The last few years and this window in particular is utter madness with some of the figures thrown around. Ultimately though, we are not paying the really silly fees of particularly the Manchester clubs and we are buying younger players. Matic and Walker are both knocking on the door of 30. All our outfield signings are early to mid 20's. Walker will be **** in a couple of years once his pace drops a bit and Spurs wouldn't have sold to us anyway.
Is he though? I thought they wanted 50 million. I said Mahrez a few weeks back as a possible option. Not sure he has enough work rate in him though for conte. He's more of a luxury player and we have that in Hazard.
I'm not sold he should be spending them much on Ox though, rather pay a bit more for someone premium. Tbh i've never really rated that highly the quartet you have mentioned and maybe there all should have progressed. 1 thing is though that you'd be stupid paying 35m - 40m for any of that quartet. I think Ox has played really well the past 2 months (inc last year) but 40m for him is outrageous. I wouldn't call him a consistent performer as i previously thought he was **** and overrated until Wenger went 3-4-3 and his performances have sort of reinforced this in that fact that he's never been a first team starter in a team that is as bad as Arsenal. The other worrying factor is that he's pretty injury prone. I hope Conte can turn him into a world class performer and i'm sure he will be able to at least improve his level. however we might as well have just kept our famed youth players than splashing 40 on oxo
£40m for Oxo, we have just mugged you off He's decent enough, but no end product. In any normal window he'd be worth around £12m max
yup and i've moaned enough about it. At least we're paying 40m for Ox though rather that than spending 32m on Granit/mustafi or 50m on lacazette (a good price) but then having my manager leave him on the bench
Yeah baffling why Wenger left Lacazette on the bench for Liverpool. But still he's a good buy at that price. Oxo though, he's decent enough and quite good at running at defenders, but his end product has 1 in 10 for effectiveness.
Ox rejects Chelsea. wow. Goodness me. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41077833 I was happy to hear the news that we are getting him (upgrade over Cescy). Ox can be CM not just WB. Heard the fees and was disappointed. Now Ox rejects us ffs , kind of bitter sweet. He is not worth 40M even if he has 4 years left on his contract. Transfer fees make or break any & every player. But seriously, Pool? Klopp has better midfield choice than Chelsea. How in the farking world Ox is going to get in there? Ox can easily dislodge Cescy. At Pool he cannot even dislodge Milner - let alone Hendo, Can, Gigi.
Ox only wants to play CM and Conte saw him as a wing back. Unbelievable, 40 million , 180,000 a week and he'll tell us where he'll play ? He's a 15mill player in my book , potential, but not the finished article. Look elsewhere.
You could have lied a bit y'chav twats now we're getting him FFS! No way he's getting in our starting team in any position. As long as he's happy as cover from the bench then fine.
