Alex Oxlade Chamberlain aka "The Ox"

[Norbs]

Ox's Dad was on the old footballers program last night, Alex made an appearance

[Chris]

Currently playing for the reserves with Brewster and Godmez. Brewster has scored and won a pen.

[Irishnev]

[ame="https://twitter.com/jnorthcroft/status/1122231632042180609"]https://twitter.com/jnorthcroft/status/1122231632042180609[/ame]

[vlahka]

During the game the commentary, I think it was Peter Drury, was cheering on Ox to score when he came on after having come back from some a harsh injury. Was great to hear.

[Cormack74]

Anyone subscribe to the Times who can post the article on here?

[Irishnev]

Anyone subscribe to the Times who can post the article on here?

When you are out for a year you go through stages, says Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — and they sound like the stages of grief. First, you can’t compute it, then everything hits you. Then acceptance. And finally you start over — which, to raucous joy at Anfield on Friday night, he did when he bounded on as a substitute in Liverpool’s 5-0 romp against Huddersfield.

What he gained on the sidelines was perspective. “When you’re 18 you think football will last for ever and suddenly you’re 25. And in the Premier League you’re lucky to make it past 32, 33,” he says. Oxlade-Chamberlain always had an inkling of what he wanted to do, post-playing, and while recuperating from a serious knee injury he crystallised those thoughts. Inpired by American sports stars such as LeBron James, and also by his former Arsenal teammate Mathieu Flamini, he sees his future in business.

James is on the path to becoming a billionaire thanks to shrewd tech and leisure investments (including 2% in Liverpool now worth six times the stake’s original $6.5m value), while some estimate Flamini’s wealth in the tens of billions thanks to the biochemicals company he co-founded. Now Oxlade-Chamberlain has sunk a seven-figure sum into a sports tech company.

STATSports provides the GPS vests and other performance technology used by Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, England and numerous leading club and national teams, and is big in rugby, NFL and NBA. Oxlade-Chamberlain is hands-on with a marketing plan to roll out its products to the mass market, noting how ordinary footballers — youngsters especially — are increasingly curious about their own performance data.

Business Studies was perhaps his favourite of 10 subjects in which he gained good GCSEs at private St John’s College, Southsea. He loved the coursework and remembers fondly a case study on Tesco. “I’ve been really interested in business for a long time,” he says. “In America it’s more accepted sports stars get involved in business and the one that shouts to me is LeBron. He’s interested in businesses that interest me and does a lot of stuff where he takes control and uses his position to tap into things people don’t think sportsmen can.”

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Oxlade-Chamberlain almost scored seconds into Friday’s 17-minute cameo and would love to make a telling intervention before the season ends. But, he says, “The most important thing is I’d love Liverpool to achieve something really special. That comes before me. I’ve been out long enough not to worry too much about [personal objectives].”

“Ox” hurt himself in last April’s Champions League semi-final against Roma, sprinting back to slide-tackle Aleksandar Kolarov. That epitomised the dervish of productive activity he became after embracing Klopp-ball. Before injury, he led Liverpool’s pressing stats and was involved in 10 goals in 20 games.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is already planning for his future after football with STATSports data techology company
Oxlade-Chamberlain is already planning for his future after football with STATSports data techology company
PETER POWELL
He left Arsenal because of a hunger to play for Jurgen Klopp, and it looked like he had at last become the player he should be. Yet, highly driven beneath the easy smile, he rejects the notion. “I don’t think I’d become that player. I just think I was moving in the right direction. I was becoming more consistent but it was a short spell [of performance] and to be that [top] player you need a long period.” Is he capable of better? “Of course. If I didn’t feel that, there wouldn’t be much point in coming back. I’ve got to believe that’s where I can go to. And I’m going to need to do that to get back into this team.”

Perspective includes fresh understanding of what makes Klopp’s Liverpool special. “The biggest thing for me this whole year, and I’ve said it to friends, is that when you’re removed from it you realise how big the pressure is on the boys — pressure to produce really good results, every week, in all types of competitions, in different countries.

“I’d be working hard at the club feeling I’d had a long day, then see the boys in the canteen, just back from a Champions League game in Italy or wherever, with their bags on their backs and they’re off to Bournemouth away. When you’re in it, you’re just in it. Removed, you realise how relentless it is. You get to hear the noise and everyone wants wins and wins and wins. And from the manager I’ve seen, however well the boys have done at the weekend, he’s the same exactly on the Sunday and Monday. He keeps demanding from the players. He keeps them there. You can see how he’s living it himself, the demands he puts on himself and how that oozes out [to everyone].”

Oxlade-Chamberlain talks about the mix. “A great captain in Hendo [Jordan Henderson], a leader and role model every single day — win, lose or draw. People like James Milner, who has won leagues but at an age where some footballers might want to wind down, is hungry.

“Then what you’d call the superstars up front but also players like Andy Robertson, who worked his way up to become one of the best in the world. Everyone understands what it means to play for Liverpool, what the fans demand — which is just giving your all for the club. I’m lucky to play with these boys. It’s not nice to miss out but it hasn’t been ‘bittersweet’, more sweet, really, seeing how well the team has done.”

He is convinced Liverpool can get past Barcelona in the Champions League. “That’s not being arrogant, I really believe it’s down to us. We can beat absolutely anyone. We’ll have to cope with their qualities and obvious strengths but we have plenty of them ourselves.”

Raheem Sterling, his close friend despite the Liverpool-Manchester City rivalry, has also invested in STATSports. Is he proud of Sterling? “Massively. For years he has taken a lot of accusations and digs in the media and the whole time he just keeps his head down, never talks too much, just keeps doing what he does. Now he is finally getting the recognition he always deserved — as a top, top footballer and also as a very decent human being. I think what he’s doing at the moment is completely inspirational — his off-field antics [fighting racism]. And what he’s doing on the pitch is not helping us out at Liverpool, but for him personally it’s outstanding. As a friend, I’m pleased to see him doing so well.”

Performance data was crucial in helping Oxlade-Chamberlain gauge his rehabilitation - and some of his training numbers are now better than ever. His goal is making STATSports “the WhatsApp of wearables” and he gave his father, ex-England striker Mark Chamberlain, one of their Apex (training vest) units for Christmas.

“I don’t know if you caught him in the Harry’s Heroes [TV programme] but he wasn’t in the best nick,” Alex laughs. “So it’s great for him to use and look at. He didn’t have a clue about accelerations and decelerations. For everyday guys who play football and retired guys it’s new technology.

“Mind you, my dad’s still trying to figure out what Instagram is.”

[Cormack74]

Good work mate.

[Buzzo]

Ox been offered a year extension to his contract to make up for his year out. What an amazing thing to do. Must be great for morale to see so much positivity and reward.

Good work HR/PR Department...!

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1136678573866139648[/ame]

[labourRed]

Some comfidence on his rehab to be out for a season and then take on a crock's number.

[Norbs]

Some comfidence on his rehab to be out for a season and then take on a crock's number.

'comfidence'

[Fosterbloke]

'comfidence'

Confidence wrapped in a warm cuddle.

[Fuzzy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/ReadLiverpoolFC/status/1154642826199732225[/ame]

[Tatterdemalion]

Some comfidence on his rehab to be out for a season and then take on a crock's number.

He hopes he carries it in the same way... that's not especially inspiring.
And was that his home? It's an empty cavern.

[dom9]

https://twitter.com/ReadLiverpoolFC/...42826199732225

How on earth do you find these obscure websites?