Arsenal manager holds hope for starlet
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may be ready to go to the European Championship finals with England in the summer. Chamberlain continued to impress this win by scoring a hat-trick for the England Under-21s against Iceland in Reykjavik.
The 18-year-old joined the Gunners in the summer and has scored in his last two club appearances. “I don’t rule him out. It depends on his progress here,” Wenger said.
Wenger advised former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to take another Gunners youngster, Theo Walcott to the World Cup in 2006 when he was just 17-years-old, and the Frenchman now firmly believes Chamberlain can give England a surprise factor in Poland and Ukraine.
Wenger added: “You cannot rule him out, because he has the basic talent. In the next five, six months we will see how he adjusts to the physical intensity of the game.”
He also said that the £12million signing from Southampton has surprised him with how quick he has settled in at the Emirates Stadium, and thinks the winger may be ready to make his first England senior appearance.
Asked whether the youngster had exceeded his expectations, Wenger said: “Yes, I did not expect him to be so comfortable as quickly as that, so he has done extremely well.
“He still needs some more time to adapt to the intensity of some of the games [but] he has the quality already for top-level Premier League games.”
Wenger said: “Theo Walcott went at 17 years of age to the World Cup and Chamberlain is already 18 now. They are at different stages.
“I believe that Chamberlain is more in the build-up of a game and Walcott is more striker-minded. They are different types of players, both gifted.
“Slowly England gets players out of the youth system that have the quality to play on the international level, at a very interesting level.”
