Ex-Arsenal ace cost club £1.4m due to clause – then joined Liverpool | Football | Sport
Arsenal ended up paying Southampton £1.4million following their sale of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool, triggered by an unusual clause written into his Gunners contract. The ex-England international became – and remains – Arsenal’s most expensive sale in 2017, completing a switch to Anfield for an initial £35million that eventually climbed to £40m.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, now 32, began his professional journey on the south coast, although he spent only a single senior season with the Saints before sealing a £15m transfer to the Emirates Stadium in 2011. That transfer was agreed with £12m paid upfront, alongside an additional £3m linked to performance-based add-ons. One crucial add-on was specifically connected to how much game time the midfielder would accumulate in north London.
As detailed in Alan Gernon’s 2018 book, The Transfer Market: The Inside Stories, Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first deal with Arsenal included a clause requiring the club to send Southampton £10k each time he appeared for a minimum of 20 minutes.
Attention around this stipulation grew when fans and pundits noticed Gunners boss Arsene Wenger regularly bringing the player on late in games, often as a substitute or after the 71st minute. In total, only 115 of his 198 outings for Arsenal came from the start.
The topic re-emerged during a 2024 instalment of the That Peter Crouch Podcast, as the former Liverpool forward and his co-host, retired Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell, reacted with surprise to the revelation.
Speaking on the programme, Sidwell said: “Our researchers, is this real? Hold on, every 20 minutes?” Crouch then added: “I don’t know if that’s true [but] that is madness.”
Overall, the clause generated £1.4m for Southampton. Oxlade-Chamberlain logged at least 20 minutes in 85 Premier League matches, 25 Champions League fixtures, 18 FA Cup games and nine EFL Cup appearances during his six-year spell at Arsenal.
He featured more often for the Gunners than for any other side, registering 20 goals and 28 assists. Across that stretch, he lifted three FA Cups and three Community Shields.
A subsequent move to Liverpool again saw him operate mainly as a squad option, with persistent injuries limiting his impact. Across six seasons on Merseyside, he recorded just 103 Premier League appearances, yet still earned major medals as part of Liverpool’s Champions League-winning group in 2019 and their Premier League triumph in 2020.
Following his departure from Liverpool in 2023, Oxlade-Chamberlain signed for Besiktas, where he claimed the Turkish Cup but once more found it difficult to cement a starting role. His deal was ended in August 2025, leaving him without a club since.
Although Oxlade-Chamberlain can agree terms with a new side at any point, completing a move before the transfer window shuts on Monday would maximise his chances of being registered – and therefore available for all competitions his future club could enter.
