Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is reportedly one of three players on Chelsea’s £120m wishlist this summer.
Not quite content with already paying Real Madrid £70m for Alvaro Morata, Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, allegedly wants to fork out £120m on three players: the Ox, Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk and Leicester midfielder, Danny Drinkwater.
Understandably unhappy with the Blues’ 3-2 loss at home to Burnley on the opening day of the season, Antonio Conte wants to start with a £35m bid for the Ox, claims the Mirror.
The Italian then wants to move onto Van Dijk for cover at centre-back, despite the Saints being adamant that they won’t sell. However, Conte is keen to strengthen up the back line considering Kurt Zouma has gone out on loan to Stoke and John Terry has signed for Aston Villa.
Similarly, the London side apparently want Drinkwater as a replacement for Matic, after selling the midfielder to Manchester United for £40. Chelsea, who are already said to have had a £15m bid rejected by the Foxes, supposedly wants to pair him up with N’Golo Kante.
Chelsea’s alleged interest in the Ox isn’t brand new information, seeing as the rumour first appeared in an EXCLUSIVE in the Daily Star on 10 August.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: Completed 8 dribbles v Leicester on Friday – only once has he completed more in a Premier League game in his career pic.twitter.com/xnb18ggtwz
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) August 14, 2017
The Ox was said to have accepted a new £100k-per-week deal with Arsenal at the beginning of the summer seeing as he has less than 12 months left on his current contract. However, for whatever reason, the England international and his camp appear to have done a complete 360 and are now reportedly demanding £120k-per-week.
This is the same amount as the likes of James Milner at Liverpool.
The Merseyside team have also been linked. However, the rumours claiming that the Ox is set to work under Jurgen Klopp next season appear to have died down.