Newcastle United are interested in signing Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when his contract expires at the end of the season.
What's the latest on Oxlade-Chamberlain to Newcastle?
According to the Daily Mail, Eddie Howe and co are mulling over completing a swoop for the 29-year-old this summer, looking to bolster the ranks with the ostensible exploits in Europe next term.
United are joined in their interest by fellow Premier League outfits Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion, with the latter allegedly interested in a January swoop before discarding interest due to concerns over paying a fee for a player available for nothing in a matter of months.
The former Arsenal gem has been at Anfield since completing a £35m transfer from north London in 2017 and has played a role in triumphant campaigns in both the Premier League and Champions League, but has found game time hard to come by across recent years.
Should Newcastle sign Oxlade-Chamberlain?
Oxlade-Chamberlain is unquestionably a talented ace, but he has failed to get a grasp on his career at Liverpool over recent years. He was impressive in the early phases of Klopp's success on Merseyside but was detrimentally hindered by a knee injury in 2018 that restricted him to just two appearances in the 2018/19 campaign.
Having scored 18 goals and provided 15 assists from 145 outings for the Reds, he does indeed appear to have been deemed expendable as his contract dwindles to a halt, and if Howe attempted to sign the £120k-per-week dud in the coming months, Oxlade-Chamberlain would flatter to deceive at St. James's Park.
Previously branded "woeful" by the Telegraph's Uche Amako, the one-time Southampton youth product would surely replicate Chris Wood's ill-fated spell on Tyneside with a transfer, with the veteran 70-cap New Zealand international completing a £25m move from Burnley last January.
Having plundered his riches at Turf Moor, Wood failed to assert his authority under Howe's wing and managed to clinch just five goals from 39 appearances, with journalist Josh Bunting remarking that the 31-year-old was "not suiting the style" implemented by Howe.
Similarly, Oxlade-Chamberlain might not gel cohesively with the thriving Magpies outfit; while Howe's demands for a hard-working and unrelenting system suits the Liverpool dynamo on the surface, his inability to remain fit would likely hinder his chances of wedging with way into starting contention with regularity.
A versatile player, the intrigue in the 35-cap England star likely centres around his aptitude across a raft of areas, bolstering the team and providing fresh dimensions from a multitude of angles, but with 88 matches missed due to injury over his near six years on Anfield, he is simply not reliable enough to occupy a role in the ambitious Newcastle team.