Manager keen on decorated midfielder - but it’s not straightforward
Celtic brought in five loanees before the winter transfer window closed on Monday night - but they are not done yet.
There is a glint in Celtic manager Martin O’Neill’s eye when he talks about his final target. England internationalist Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is currently a free agent and training with Arsenal. The Glasgow side have approached him over a move north. O’Neill himself has spoken to the 32-year-old as he tries to persuade him his short-term future lies in Scotland.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has been capped 35 times by England. He was one of Europe’s wonderkids when he broke through at Southampton and spent many years at Arsenal and Liverpool, winning 11 trophies in total - including the Premier League and the Champions League. More recently he was in Turkey with Besiktas, but has since been back at the Gunners, training with Mikel Arteta’s squad.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was most recently with Besiktas in Turkey.placeholder image
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was most recently with Besiktas in Turkey. | Getty Images
O’Neill accepts that Oxlade-Chamberlain will have other offers. Arsenal are said to be mulling over a proposal to reinforce their midfield options. He has a young family and may want to live closer to London. But Celtic have the gift of O’Neill’s gab - plus one of his former England teammates is Joe Hart, a former Parkhead keeper who has made Oxlade-Chamberlain aware of the positives of joining Celtic.
“I have spoken to him,” said O’Neill. “Obviously I had a look at what he was doing in Turkey and it was fine. He was playing in a more withdrawn role, I think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was out there and asked if he would help in that sort of position.
“You don’t lose ability. You might lose a bit of hunger, but he was definitely up for it. He was up for a challenge. At 32 years of age he’s still got it.
“He will have other options. He is training at Arsenal and Arsenal have had a few injuries so they might even take him on. But he knew about the club, he had spoken to Joe Hart, that was just by chance or a coincidence. I’m not saying he spoke to Joe Hart two days ago, it might have been months ago. But it was fine. He lives down in London.”
How Oxlade-Chamberlain would fit in at Celtic
O’Neill clearly knows where Oxlade-Chamberlain, who broke through as a winger, would fit into his team. “He could play midfield for us, easily,” continued the manager. “Is he one of those players who could go past the players on the outside, wide, I wouldn’t be sure. But he could do a job. When I signed James Milner from Newcastle to Aston Villa James was wide right hand side and I know that position very well.”
O’Neill was asked if wages are a dealbreaker. “No it’s not the money, it’s not for the money,” he replied. Is there a timescale? “I really left it. I didn’t progress any further, yet. It’s only 24, 36 hours ago.” In typical self-deprecating fashion, O’Neill added: “I think he had heard of me. Maybe his grandad told him about me.”
O’Neill has experience of luring players to Celtic from his first spell in charge of the club. He drew parallels to when Welsh striker Craig Bellamy moved on loan for the second half of the 2004/05 campaign from Newcastle. “Would he be a Craig Bellamy of years ago?” he smiled. “Bellamy’s still talked about now. People still sent messages about ‘why did he not sign permanently’. Well, because he didn’t want to come permanently! That’s the whole point!”
Bellamy may return as manager. That is for another day. “If you can get a player of that sort of calibre that would be great,” O’Neill closed on Oxlade-Chamberlain. “It would be really great. But I can understand that there are lots of other things around there. Arsenal too. Listen, if we were even on a close list that would be fine.
“If it doesn’t materialise we have good players in here at this minute. But I’d love to have him at the end of the day. I think in time getting into matchday mode, I don’t think that would be a major problem.”
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has brought in five new players.placeholder image
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has brought in five new players. | SNS Group
One player who is in O’Neill ranks is Arne Engels after Nottingham Forest failed with three bids, the largest being close to £25 million, on deadline day. The manager was pleased his board stood firm despite such large amounts of money being on offer.
“The things were coming in and the board were keeping me informed,” explained O’Neill. “But they never came to me and said ‘what are your thoughts’. I just assumed they would know what my thoughts were. It’s difficult to turn that down and also it’s something the player would at least double or treble his wages. But he seemed bright enough and breezy this morning.
“We all talk about statements from football clubs and half the time I don’t believe it but I do think it is, because that’s big. To turn down that at this stage in January is really, really big. The consequences of that is really big. I never asked how they were making it up but let’s say it was £20m with £5m added-on and that was attainable, you’re talking about £25m and that is big.”
O’Neill is glad that the window is now firmly shut. It could be his last one. "We had a meeting in this very room here about half-past ten, quarter to eleven,” he said. “And it's just nice, the boys are in the room now, competition for places, a bit of a battle on, which is good for a start. And two, people can't do anything now until the summer. So that's it. And it's a bit of a relief for me in that aspect. New set of questions then next week!”
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He was asked about activity from his title rivals. Hearts and Rangers also did deals, the latter in a much more timely fashion than their Glasgow counterparts, who snapped up defender Benjamin Arthur, winger Joel Mvuka and striker Junior Adama on Monday in addition to earlier loans for right-back Julian Araujo and striker Tomas Cvancara.
"I'm not in control of what they've done,” O’Neill added. “Who knows? Rangers and Hearts may have signed better players at the end of the day. I don't know. I'm happy with what we've done, and I'm going to get on with it, really, and just try it. And even if it's possible, which I think I can do, I think maybe I can try and improve the players - even the ones that we're bringing in.”