Mark Chamberlain Gets His Move

Arsenal Reserves Play at Barnet

We’ve just sold the first player who we didn’t want to leave since Markus Liebherr and Nicola Cortese came into the club with Alex Chamberlain leaving Saints to go to Arsenal for £12 million up front and £3 million later on.  The ‘later on’ is probably depending on club appearances and England call-ups etc.  We could be waiting a while for the Arsenal appearances cash to kick in but we’ll probably get the England call up money pretty soon if Tom Cleverley’s call up to the England squad, based on 45 minutes for Man Utd in the Charity Shield, is anything to go by.

£15 million – that’s mad.

The writing has been severely on the wall since he went to the national papers a couple of weeks ago with his “I’m ready, come and get me” article.  Whilst it was hardly ‘doing a Kenwyne Jones’ and going on strike, it did signal that he wouldn’t be here long.  Saints covered this with the immediate purchase of Steve de Ridder and from that point on, this deal was inevitable.  I’m glad it’s been done relatively quickly and he can leave us to it and go and take his chances at Arsenal.  Of course, there is the personal financial benefit from the move for Alex but in football terms, he’ll be playing mostly in front of 3 men and a dog at Barnet in Arsenal’s reserves whereas Steve de Ridder will be playing in front of 25,000 +  people at SMS.

Does anyone care about a player’s football development anymore?  I thought that because Alex’s dad was a footballer, he may lean towards that side more and want what was best to make Alex a better footballer but it appears that he’s the same (if not worse) than any agent who has never played the game.  Get the money and get it now.  I, of course am making the assumption that playing regularly for Saints in the Championship this year would be better for football development that 3 men and a dog at Barnet but what do I know ?  Not as much as Arsene Wenger of course.

I used to like Wenger and still did, even when he signed Theo Walcott from us.  I assumed he’d turn Walcott into a brilliant player but he hasn’t and he’s no better than he would be if he’d stayed with us for 5 years.  Wenger has also shown himself to be a complete two faced git as well – on the one hand complaining about Barcelona speaking about Fabregas when he was under contract at Arsenal, a couple of months after speaking about Chamberlain when correct me if I’m wrong, he was under contract at Southampton.  So, the next time Wenger is on the TV moaning about Barcelona / Chelsea/ Man City tapping up one of his players.... you live by the sword, you die by it my friend.  Still, I’m pleased for Arsenal’s sake that he has plugged the gaping deficiencies in his defence and with his keeper by signing a 17 year old winger to go with Gervinho, who is also a winger / striker but Arsene knows best. 

It’s a minor gripe though and I wish Alex all the best.   If he does well it will once again reinforce the message that Saints are the place to send your talented youngster if you want him to have the best chance of making it.   We have to aim to get into the Premiership so we can keep these lads a bit longer but if one of the really big clubs comes in, there’s not a lot you can do about it aside from getting as much money as you can out of them and putting it to good use, a task which I completely trust Don Nicola to do.

Saints first team will be fine as we’ve managed to win 14 out of our last 16 games without Alex due to injury.  In terms of our team right now, he’s not vital though we may have been even better with him in the side.   He was superb when fit last season and of course, will get better which is why Arsenal bought him.    On the one hand it’s annoying that we’ve had another  potentially brilliant young talent ripped away when we only got a season out of him but £15 million is a brilliant deal for us though and justifies and probably pays for all the Academy investment we’ve put in since the Lowe point...  and then some.

The same old questions come up .... will other teams try and rip us off now?, will agents try and up the deal now?  I personally think that if you are a club and/or an agent and you try and fuck with the Don... the deal won’t happen.  We’ll get the players we want on the bus, at the price we want or it won’t happen.  It’s as simple as that.  Personally, if we only get a centre half with the money then I’ll be delighted as I’m happy enough with the rest of the squad.

Jack Cork summed it up better than I ever could when he tweeted ...

“all the best to Chambo on his move... he’s going to miss a great season with us tho”

Jack knows best.

Hmmmmm.... money...