Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has spoken out about the manner in which he found out that his time at Liverpool was coming to an end.
The 30-year-old departed Anfield this summer after six years with the Reds, during which he won a multitude of major trophies.
The now-Besiktas midfielder gave a wide-ranging interview to The Athletic in which he spoke about the moment when he was told that he wouldn’t be getting a new contract at LFC following its expiry at the end of last season.
Ox revealed: “It was never said. I obviously got the picture (laughs). I got told before they released the statement: ‘Just so you know, we’re putting this out about you, Milly, Bobby and Naby leaving’. And I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Thanks’.
“But there was nothing official at any point before. It was just… the silence was enough to know what the situation was.”
He added: “You just… expect certain things to be told — whether it’s good, bad, whatever, that’s how the game goes. The lack of communication was… a bit surprising”, although he stressed that he “had great, great times at Liverpool” and “couldn’t say anything bad about” his six years at Anfield.
The callous manner in which Ox was told that his Liverpool departure would be confirmed in a club statement, rather than any senior figure at Anfield coming to him beforehand to break the news privately, seems incredibly harsh on a player who made a valuable contribution to the shirt.
Even if his time on Merseyside was blighted by serious injuries, the midfielder showed more than enough to justify Jurgen Klopp’s decision to bring him in for £35m in 2017 (BBC Sport), a fee he’d virtually repaid inside his first season with us.
Prior to his fateful knee injury against Roma in the Champions League semi-finals, he’d netted five times in that campaign, two of which came in famous home wins over Manchester City.
He also struck seven times during the glorious 2019/20 season (Transfermarkt), demonstrating that he could make a telling impact when he got a sustained run in the team.
While it became clear in his final year at Liverpool that he was no longer a first-choice player, getting just 334 top-flight minutes in 2022/23 (Transfermarkt), Ox still deserved far better than to be cast aside without being given the courtesy of finding out prior to the club statement.
Ask Klopp or anyone who played alongside the midfielder during his time at Anfield and they’d surely speak very highly of what the 30-year-old contributed to the Reds.
#Ep94 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️