Just for Kicks – Comparing Lukaku with Oxlade-Chamberlain

By: Homey | July 26th, 2011

Lukaku I know there are more substantive things to blog about at the moment, but for today, I’ll take a slight detour. We’ll be back soon to discuss the transfer comings and goings. I believe the sales of Eboue and JET are close, there is always Cesc news, and then there are rumors about Cazorla, Campbell, Jagielka, and Enrique. But for today, let’s compare a couple of supposed Arsenal targets who are both young and full of potential.

In doing the comparison, I’ll start with my usual disclaimer that I don’t really watch the Belgian Jupiler League or League 1 in England, so I’ll welcome comments from those who do. So my blog today is basically built from statistics, things I’ve read, plus videos I’ve watched. Also, I wouldn’t consider either of these players as necessary as, say, Leighton Baines or Jan Vertonghen. And if I had to bet, I would bet we don’t sign either Lukaku or Oxtail either. But since it appears we’re going to ignore obvious areas of need yet again, why not have a little fun playing “what if” with Lukaku and Oxtail?

My first area of analysis will be that of price and availability. There doesn’t seem to be much question that Lukaku would cost more, but the question is how much more. One recent report listed his price around €20 million, but that’s probably the cheapest he would come. Obviously, he’s been linked with Chelsea and a few of the other “usual suspects” in the transfer market, but nothing has happened yet. And Chelsea’s new manager has recently stated he’s pretty content with his current forward options. It’s good to see that he thinks he can get something from a £50 million player like Torres. Anyway, the bottom line for me is that we’re getting towards the end of July, and none of the big players have made a serious move. Lukaku may well stay at Anderlecht, but I don’t think Arsenal would have to make an outrageous bid to get him. As for his eagerness to leave, I haven’t read nearly as much about that as I have with Oxtail, but I would think he’d be willing to jump ship to a big club in England or Spain.
Oxtail
Oxtail has been a lot more open about his desire to leave Southampton, and would clearly love a move to Arsenal. His price is also uncertain, but it would likely be in the £12 to £15 million range. As with Lukaku, it’s getting late in the window, and none of the big spenders have swooped in just yet. So he may stay at Southampton for another season, but at least it doesn’t seem like Arsenal would have to enter a crazy bidding war for his services.

I’ll now turn to my second area of analysis, which is their abilities as players, and how they might fit in with Arsenal. Lukaku has often been called “the next Drogba” for his size and finishing ability. He’s really more of a forward and scorer than Oxtail. If he were to come to Arsenal, he would likely be the first backup to RvP. But I think with his speed, he could also play the forward/wing role as well, so I think he’d get his share of game action. (I think he’d at least fit the forward/wing role better than Bendtner did, for instance.) And with RvP being notoriously injury-prone, that should make for quite a few starts.

Besides looking good in various highlight videos, the stats on Lukaku are amazing when you stop to think about them. He has helped to lead Anderlecht to the Belgian title the last two seasons. And while that isn’t the greatest league, I feel pretty confident in saying that it’s well above League One in England (where Oxtail has been plying his trade, which is essentially the third division). Furthermore, he’s gotten plenty of Europa League action against teams like Ajax, Hamburg, and Zenit.

But the really impressive thing for me is just the goal totals for Lukaku, given his age. He was born May 13, 1993, so he recently turned 18. This means that his 19 goals and 7 assists in the 2009-10 season occurred when he was only 16. This included two goals at Ajax in the Europa League. He followed that up with 20 goals and 7 assists in all competitions this last season, while still only 17. Uh, wow. He’s also already made 9 appearances for the Belgian national team. (As an aside, how good are they going to be in a few years – Hazard, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Lukaku, Witsel, etc.) Anyway, it’s hard to think of too many players who were that prolific at such a young age.

While Oxtail is still 17, he’s only 3 months younger than Lukaku, since he was born on August 15, 1993. And since every young player has to be called the “next so-and-so,” he’s naturally been called the next Walcott (perhaps largely due to the fact that both came through the Southampton youth ranks). He’s basically had one breakout year (last season) for Southampton, and he helped his club earn promotion to the Championship division in England. In 41 total appearances, he had 11 goals and 9 assists. It should also be noted that he’s much more of a natural fit for Arsenal’s forward/wing role. However, I wonder if he would be able to push ahead of players like Arshavin or Walcott in his first season. Most likely, he’d be more of a Carling Cup sort of player in his first year.

So overall, how does the comparison stack up? Oxtail would be cheaper, would be a better fit for a need position at Arsenal if Nasri departs, and he would love nothing more than to play for Arsenal. Lukaku probably doesn’t lie awake at night dreaming of Arsenal, but I don’t think he’d turn it down either. He’s more expensive, and arguably doesn’t fit our needs on the field as much. However, I hear this old saying when I follow the NFL draft every year – take the best player available. Now I don’t think that means to ignore obvious need positions, but when there’s a guy whose ability jumps off the page, then you need to see what you can do to get that guy. For me, that guy is Lukaku. And the price doesn’t seem to be that unreasonable. And I don’t even hear Man City sniffing around either, so that always helps.

Anyway, you can share your thoughts in the poll below, and then in the comments’ section, as always.

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[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23.

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Category: Arsenal News

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FredJacob

http://blog.emiratesstadium.in...
FredJacob

Hope this is the last long term injury we get for the year, Conor Henderson out for about 6 months
FredJacob

ow ow, Walcott leaves arsenal training camp to have ankle scan
Lonik Paerz

All this talk on here about Wenger buying cheap
imports is not as true as it first sounds. The reality is far worse. The
recent track record on signings has been very, very poor. We are paying
way over the odds for foreign imports. £10M for Kos was too much (don’t
get me wrong I think he could turn out alright); £6M for Squid was a
joke that I still don’t get; £16M for Arshavin has not worked out. It’s
weird because sometimes I worry about some of these targets that we are
linked with – good on paper but from inferior leagues and like someone
said the cost of Kos and numbnuts could have got us Cahill. Even when
you look at players like Song – good solid player but does not set the
world alight. So even that can only be considered OK business (I think
we got him for £3.5M which is about right). I think the only 2 decent
signings we have made since moving from Highbury is Sagna and Verm.
Still – I’ll be interested to see what happens when Cesc goes.
Orion

I do agree with you to a certain extent. Although Wenger gets some stick, not all of it deservedly, we have to put ourselves in his shoes.

Take Squillaci for example; an experienced 30 year old defender who was supposed to add some balls to the defence - he was integral in Monaco's Champions League campaign in '04 which they eventually lost out to Mourinho's Porto. My point is that he shouldn't turned out the way he has. He wasn't supposed to be a liability. Last Summer I thought it would be a bargain - 6mill for an experienced defender (of which we were in desperate need) was not a bad deal. Little did we know what was about to happen with him.

The same can be said for Arshavin. He was sought after by the top teams in Europe, including Barcelona, in 2008. And he had a brilliant first six months with Arsenal. Then his work ethic dropped and things turned sour. Having said so, I believe that during the latter parts of this campaign, he was one of the very few that was chasing back and winning the ball for us in defence, something that unfortunately has become a rare scene with this Arsenal team.

And Koscielny. I don't think that was a bad signing at all. He's shown us what he can do and I think he might well be another Vermaelen. He's quick, works hard, and robust. Remember the first game of the season against Liverpool? Everyone thought he was going to be out for a seriously long time. But, football gods willing, he shook his head and everyone was glad he was back up on his feet again.Consider that not so long ago he was playing in Ligue 2 in France. He was bought as a deputy for Vermaelen, and with the latter's unlucky injury, he had Djourou to tutor him instead, who had also returned from a seemingly very lengthy spell out and had yet to find his footing in the Premier League again, almost like a new signing.

In conclusion, when you look at it on the outset, most of the transfers have been shitty; some of them actually are. But when you analyse them closely, you see what were Arsenal and Wenger's intentions, and it was only up to the players to prove their transfer fees justifiable.
Shajee

Homey, i've started reading ur Arsenal blogs just recently, and i like them a lot...great job, even though u come from the "soccer" world. Anyways i want to make a comment regarding shoring up the backline at Arsenal; they've been linked to 4 different CBs from the EPL, n while i understand the preference in getting an english defender, or one that has already exprienced the premier league, you are the only blogger i've seen who mentioned vertonghen as a target for the gunners, which is sth i completely agree with and don't understand y they haven't been linked to him yet. He has experience playing with vermaelen before he made it to arsenal, he is not that expensive compared to the valuations of Cahill or Jagielka, and he had rave reviews over his performances last season. i believe he should be THE target for arsenal, unless wenger wants to go for a big massive CB like samba or mertsacker.
Sophie

I love Vertonghen, and as an Ajax fan I loved him and Vermaelen together. Vertonghen's wikipedia page even says they're best friends... adorable.

However, I think he's a more expensive option than Mertesacker, and Mertesacker probably has more experience at a higher level. Bundesliga and Germany constitutes better experience, in my mind, than Belgium and Eredivisie.

Ideally, we'd pick up either Vertonghen or Mertesacker and a starting left back, but I think we should consider ourselves lucky if we pick up any of those three.
Perry S.

I WANT A DE-FEND-ER, NOT A CHERRY PIC-KER!
Sophie

What's the deal with the Jose Enrique rumors? I've seen that we're linked with him, and that he's almost certainly leaving Newcastle. Does anyone know how serious the link is / if he'd be a good fit?
Perry S.

Lets put it this way, would you rather have Gibbs starting at LB or Enrique? If we aren't looking elsewhere with much intent, I really think we need to jump on this.
Sophie

Well unfortunately I haven't really seen a whole lot of Enrique, but someone a little more proven would be wonderful. Sounds like he'd come on the cheap too, just Wenger's type.
Shirish K.

is alex a winger or forward.

but lukaku is a better forward , and alex oxtail a good pacy winger !
Felegy

Bummed about JET. I remember lots of people here talking about him quite a but heading into last season, excited about his potential. I guess we don't have much use for him at this point with our current squad but there is one other forward on our squad that I would much rather see go and would probably bring in more cash.....
Martin

Yeah, he's a very talented player, but supposedly he had major attitude/work ethic issues, and at this level, all the talent in the world can't make you a great player if you're not willing to work for it.
Felegy

Yeah, I was reading some articles about his troubles with the law, lack of work ethic and his bad attitude on display on Twitter. Put Wilshere's work ethic in that guy and we have our answer for a #2 striker. He's young enough to get his act together though, some time at Ipswich will be good for his ego....
brenton

This is a tweet from when he left Cardiff:

Certain people fuck off if you dnt lyk it unfollow Im supporting my family on GOT TO DANCE! IF U GOT A PROBLEM DAT UNFOLLOW BUTTON IS DARE!!

I must say, his spelling is atrocious.
Alexinho

Color me surprised.

Was sad to see him go until I saw this...

Heck, did he ever show even a glimmer of potential? I can't think of anything...

Martin, just realized--your avatar--Breaking Bad, eh?
Martin

Yeah, I started quite the shitstorm on Twitter last year when I said something fairly innocuous about Eastmond (who is even worse -- e.g., "Hutcty an his cousin in funky budda poppin bottles lolol hahaa"). I basically said, it's kind of ironic that these guys probably get on Twitter at least in part to connect with fans, but then I personally see things like that and like them much less. And then a bunch of people jumped down my throat about being elitist and not "understanding" them, etc., etc.

But it just seems like if they're putting themselves out there, they need to understand that people are going to be judging them. They are celebrities, they are public figures, and if they sign up for Twitter, people who have never met them are going to follow them to see what they are like. And they need to be prepared for the possibility that people may like them less if they post dumb shit.
Perry S.

In a nutshell, they make themselves look like stereotypical jocks...all muscle, no brains.
Homey_Mills

It's just like blogging in that respect.
brenton

Hey, I'm standing right here.
FredJacob

Not sure if the offside is having a fantasy league if not you'll an join mines

Please visit the new and improved http://fantasy.premierleague.c... to Register and select your new team (high prices this year!)

Once you've done that, use the league PIN 5070-2590 to be added in
brenton

Interesting piece over on A Cultured Left Foot about the efficiency of Arsenal transfer and wage dollars. I can't link it, just search for it. Basically, we punch above our weight in the league but well behind on trophies. No surprises, but a good analysis.
Ian

just a heads up, JET moved to Ispwich permanently, not on loan
ChanaEddie

Lukaku and Hazad are my dream no 1 and 2 move this yr. Even not possible, it will be excellent to add another Belgium talent, Fellaini.
brenton

Fellaini would be back-up to Song, which he probably wouldn't like.
FredJacob

i think we have at the moment way better players in the midfield than Felaini
Gt4r

hmmmn intersestin points i agree with ur sentiments
Gigi_man

I voted Lukaku, but really after the Gervinho deal I expect defence...yet I might be left expecting, right? :(
Homey_Mills

Maybe Wenger wants to win every game 4-3.
Gigi_man

ha, he wants us to make some doctors rich!
Homey_Mills

You obviously weren't alone in voting for Lukaku. Oxtail not getting much love today.
Homey_Mills

The official website is now listing the JET sale to Ipswich. By my count, after the Eboue deal is finalized, we'll be net sellers in this transfer window, yet again.
Ogban

That's what will please the board....and the boss!
Homey_Mills

Well, supposedly, the board is putting pressure on the manager to spend money. But who knows what's going on behind the scenes. I just know it's very frustrating.
FredJacob

it Almunia or Bendtner being sold this year, i wonder
Jonny

lakuka... hazad... ventonghen,,, get these belgium lads.. all of them how ever we do it, along with the verminator belgium revelution at the arsenal. Thats my dream summer.. lets hope it will be the same as the dutch revelution milan had in the late 80s early 90s. belgium have got some great young tallent. bit of a dream i know but if we do get lakuka it might make us a good option for hazad. and getting players to tapp other players up over international duty has got to be the easyiest way of doing it. ha ha... come on wrenger, no one else plays by the rules.
Casimir

It's very impressive. I remember a few years ago, after Belgium was eliminated from Euro Cup Qualification they started just sending out these young 18 and 19 year olds and capping them, and they actually put in much better performances than their full senior side at the time and picked up a few points at the end as consolation. Definitely going to be an interesting national team to watch in the coming years.
Atif350

why are you calling him oxtail???
shockandawe

has it upset you?
Homey_Mills

By the way, I've seen other bloggers have a little fun with that name too. I recall reading "Chamberpot" and other stuff like that.
Martin

I think I called him Oxford Chambermaid or some such when this rumor came around last year...
Homey_Mills

Yes, that's right. I forgot about that exact name. So you see, we can blame this trend on the Martin.
Homey_Mills

I think Brenton called him that first. It's just a funny little way to joke about his hyphenated last name, which is too long to keep writing over and over. So Oxtail simple and more fun.
brenton

It was upon my return from Jamaica that I was struck by the opportunity to use Oxtail as his nickname.
Perry S.

Did you have any Oxtail, Gravy, Beans & Rice while you were out there?
brenton

Mmmmm, oxtail stew, so good.