Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is in footballing limbo after reaching an agreement to terminate his contract with Besiktas, leaving the former Arsenal midfielder without a club at the start of September.
The 32-year-old had been strongly linked with a return to England throughout the summer, with Birmingham City among the most serious contenders for his signature.
Reports from Sky Sports and The Athletic in August said that talks with Besiktas were centred on a mutual termination, enabling Oxlade-Chamberlain to negotiate freely with interested clubs. That agreement was reached on 27 August.
It was a situation that mirrored last summer, when Besiktas were also prepared to part ways with him.
At the time, Ipswich Town and Sheffield United were credited with interest, but Oxlade-Chamberlain ultimately remained in Turkey, making 20 appearances last season and scoring once, though he was omitted from their Europa League squad.
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s career has spanned more than a decade at the top of English football.
Signed from Southampton by Arsène Wenger in 2011 for around £15 million, he went on to make 198 appearances for Arsenal, scoring 20 goals and collecting three FA Cup winners’ medals.
He became the club’s youngest English scorer in the Champions League and was lauded for his versatility, operating across midfield and attack. Injuries, however, would come to define his career.
His £35 million move to Liverpool in 2017 was driven by a desire to play centrally, rejecting Chelsea to work under Jürgen Klopp. He was part of squads that lifted both the Premier League and Champions League, but his time on Merseyside was punctuated by yet more long injury absences.
He left Anfield in 2023 having played 146 games and scored 18 goals.
A free transfer to Besiktas followed, where he made 50 appearances and won the Turkish Cup, but his two years in Istanbul ended the same way as his Liverpool spell – with more time spent out injured than on the pitch.
Now back on the market, Oxlade-Chamberlain is reportedly open to a significant pay cut to secure a return to England, with both Premier League and Championship clubs said to be monitoring his availability.
Whether Birmingham can complete a deal, or another suitor steps in, remains to be seen.
For a player once considered one of England’s brightest talents, his current free-agent status underlines the difficulties of a career that has offered flashes of brilliance but been defined just as much by frustration.
In total, for Arsenal, Liverpool and England, he missed 220 games through injury.