KLOPP NICKS KOP FAN OX
Liverpool step in as Alex snubs move to Chelsea
LIVERPOOL have sealed a £40m deal for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – and are still holding out hope of signing Thomas Lemar too.
Oxlade-Chamberlain will sign a fiveyear contract today after snubbing champions Chelsea in favour of a move to Anfield. The Reds are also aiming to clinch a £75m deadline deal for Monaco’s French forward Lemar.
Childhood Kop fan Oxlade-Chamberlain, 24, was having a Liverpool medical last night at St George’s Park,
where he has been with the England squad preparing for tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier in Malta.
Liverpool made their move for the midfielder after he turned down the chance to join Chelsea on Tuesday.
The Premier League champions had agreed a £40m fee with Arsenal but the player insisted he was not interested, fearing that Blues boss Antonio Conte wanted him to play at wing-back.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has made clear he would rather play in central midfield, and the boyhood Liverpool fan believes that he will get that chance under Jurgen Klopp.
The deal with the Reds means that Arsenal will get a sizeable fee for a player who had one year left on his contract at the Emirates Stadium and had refused to sign an extension.
Fears
Anfield officials have been busy in the final days of the transfer window, having agreed on Tuesday to play RB Leipzig £55m for midfielder Naby Keita, who will move to Merseyside next summer.
They have not given up on bringing in Virgil van Dijk either, although Southampton are determined to keep the £70mrated defender, who is under contract until 2022.
Klopp signed Mohamed Salah from Roma, Dominic Solanke from Chelsea and full-back Andrew Robertson from Hull last month but there had been increasing fears among the Anfield support over the club’s relative lack of transfer activity.
Meanwhile, striker Divock Origi could join German club Wolfsburg on a season’s loan later today.
The Belgium international had looked set to be offered to Monaco as part of a deal for Lemar, with Newcastle also interested, but a move to the Bundesliga is now more likely.
Origi, 22, believes his first-team chances will be limited at Anfield and is keen to play to boost his chances of a World Cup call-up.