Arsenal hoping for Chelsea vs. Liverpool bidding war over Oxlade-Chamberlain

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain continues to edge closer to the exit door at Arsenal after multiple reports yesterday claimed that he rejected a massive £180k contract extension. As clubs tend to do in these sorts of situations, Arsenal has undoubtedly made sure to publicize that rejection, which combined with Wenger’s comments about loyalties and whatnot paints Oxlade-Chamberlain as the villain of the piece. Of course, the only reason they are in this situation is because they were not willing to pay the Ox what he wanted (and/or couldn’t fulfill his ambitions) until it was too late. Regardless, their loss is set to be someone else’s gain — hopefully ours.

The Blues’ multi-week interest in the 24-year-old has been well publicized as well, with a potential price tag in the £30-35m range and wages around £125-150k frequently attached to stories from journalists on the Chelsea beat. But Chelsea’s job now may still not be as straightforward as we’d like as apparently late and strong interest from Liverpool is something that needs to be considered.

In all likelihood, this is a bit of agenting shenanigans from the non-Chelsea side of things, though that doesn’t mean we can completely discount or ignore the possibility of Liverpool messing things up for us. But with Granovskaia & Co re-doubling efforts to get a few signings over the line before Thursday’s deadline, perhaps we can be hopeful of being able to get this one done, finally.