Newcastle United are one of several Premier League clubs jostling to sign Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The Reds midfielder is out of contract in the summer and according to The Daily Mail, he’s now ‘almost certain’ to leave.
As a home-grown free agent, Oxlade-Chamberlain is likely to be attractive to a number of teams. Three of those, the Mail report, are Aston Villa, Brighton and Newcastle.
Brighton are even said to have attempted to sign the 29-year-old in January. It’s claimed that they approached Liverpool with the hope of signing Oxlade-Chamberlain for nothing. Unsurprisingly, the Reds reportedly turned them down.
Come the summer though, and Liverpool will have no power to do the same. Nor, it seems, do they care much to anyway. It’s claimed that despite their No.15’s rapidly ending contract, there have been ‘no talks’ to extend.
In addition to the Premier League trio, clubs in Italy’s Serie A are also said to have ‘expressed interest’ in Ox.
Ox looks for inspiration
In all honesty, a move to Newcastle doesn’t sound like the kind of level Ox is at right now. The Magpies are upwardly mobile and could well be in next season’s Champions League.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has been described as being ‘unbelievable’ by Reds teammate Andy Robertson. But for all his qualities, the former Arsenal man’s career is surely moving in the opposite direction. Frustrated as a bit-part player for the last few years at Liverpool, it feels like the best days of his career are now behind him.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. And he can certainly look to a former teammate at Anfield for inspiration.
Upon his departure in 2020, it looked for all the world that Adam Lallana was finished as a top-level player. Just like with Oxlade-Chamberlain, injuries played a big part in that. But whatever the reason, he appeared done.
Fast forward three years and Lallana is still going strong in a Brighton side now above Liverpool in the table. Having got himself fit, the former England man has transitioned into a deeper-lying player and a role model to his younger teammates.
Although Ox doesn’t have the technical skills of Lallana, perhaps he could still do the same as he heads into his thirties. Brighton could be needing midfielders in the summer and maybe Roberto De Zerbi could get the best out of him. We’ll see. One thing seems to now be for certain though, wherever Ox is playing next season, it won’t be at Liverpool.