Chelsea agree fee with Arsenal for Chamberlain

Reigning Premier League champions Chelsea have agreed on a fee with Arsenal for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Chelsea has been linked all summer with Chamberlain who refused to sign a contract extension at Arsenal.

After Arsene Wenger’s failure to convince the 24-year-old to renew his contract, Arsenal is now being forced to sell the player who only has a year left on his deal.

With a fee agreed between the clubs, Chamberlain will now discuss personal terms with Chelsea and undergo a medical at England camp at the St George's Park ahead of a proposed £35million move.

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Liverpool showed interest for Chamberlain but the player preferred to remain in London.

Chamberlain had crunch talks with Wenger last week but rejected a final contract offer worth £180,000-a-week and made his intentions to leave clear.

The player is particularly unhappy over his lack of game time at the club. He also always wanted to play in the midfield but was not given the chance as Wenger prefers to play him as a winger.

Chamberlain believes that a move away from Arsenal will provide the needed fresh challenge with his career needs at this point.

This is a huge blow to Wenger who wanted the player to remain at the club.

“All these conversations that I have [I say] that I want him to stay and be one of the big players of the future of this club,” Wenger said last week.

“He is one of the players this team has to be built around in the future. Personally, I want him to commit to the club and to be one of the carriers of the values of our team.

“I want to keep my best players. I only have one target: to keep everybody on board. I think we invested a lot of time, confidence and money on players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who we bought at a young age.

“For me, they have a responsibility for the future of this club because Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be one of the big English players in the coming years. I personally am highly determined to keep him here at the club and I hope he will commit.”