Peter Crouch and Steve Sidwell are stunned by a clause Arsenal once agreed to put in a player’s contract for their £15m transfer to Emirates Stadium under Arsene Wenger.
The Frenchman had a real talent for discovering future stars and making them icons in north London. Not every name Wenger signed turned into an Arsenal legend like their all-time top goalscorer, Thierry Henry. But his hits frequently outweighed any misses, like Francis Jeffers.
Arsenal also had to get creative to secure some of the targets that Wenger identified during his 22-year tenure. Emirates Stadium chiefs have also continued to get creative to structure some deals since, such as paying LOSC Lille £52m of Nicolas Pepe’s £72m fee in five years.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s appearance clause at Arsenal stuns Peter Crouch
But the way that Arsenal worked a transfer from Southampton for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011 has stunned Crouch and Sidwell. The 30-year-old switched the south coast for north London in August 2011 for an initial £12m, rising by a further £3m with all possible add-ons.
Some of those add-ons even related to how long Oxlade-Chamberlain spent on their pitch in N5. Although the 35-cap England international seldom established himself as a pivotal cog in the capital. He left Arsenal for Liverpool for an initial £35m, rising to £40m, in August 2017.
READ MORE: Arsenal’s most expensive transfer sales ever, including Oxlade-Chamberlain
Alan Gernon’s book, The Transfer Market: The Inside Stories, debated one clause in Oxlade-Chamberlain’s initial contract for Arsenal when it hit shelves in 2018. Gernon suggested that the Gunners had owed the Saints £10k each time the midfielder played 20 or more minutes.
The clause was a big talking point as Wenger regularly only brought Oxlade-Chamberlain on in or after the 71st minute. In fact, across the Portsmouth-born Southampton product’s 198 games for the Gunners in all competitions, he only earned 115 whilst in the starting line-up.
Crouch raising the clause in Oxlade-Chamberlain’s contract at Arsenal on That Peter Crouch Podcast enticed Sidwell to reply: “Our researchers, is this real? Hold on, every 20 minutes?” To which, Crouch added: “I don’t know if that’s true [but] that is madness.”
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain secured Southampton £1.4m with his appearance clause
Oxlade-Chamberlain would have activated the £10k clause in his contract for Arsenal in 140 games, securing Southampton £1.4m. He enjoyed 20 or more minutes in 85 Premier League fixtures, 25 Champions League ties, 18 FA Cup matches and nine EFL Cup ties in six years.
One of the final times that Oxlade-Chamberlain activated the clause before joining Liverpool would have also come as Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 in the 2017 FA Cup final after starting the Wembley affair. He also played 20 or more minutes and won in three Community Shield ties.