The Liverpool player apparently hadn’t heard of the Arsenal legend.
Wayne Rooney has claimed that Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain didn’t have a clue who Arsenal legend Marc Overmars was.
The Dutch winger only spent three years in North London but played a huge role in helping the Gunners to a Premier League and FA Cup double in 1998.
He last played for Arsenal in the year 2000, when the Liverpool attacker was only seven years old.
Oxlade-Chamberlain joined the reigning European champions in a £40 million deal from the Emirates Stadium club in 2017 [The Guardian].
And Rooney has told The Times that his former England team-mate had never heard of the legendary winger prior to giving him advice about wing play.
He said: “I remember speaking to Oxlade-Chamberlain in the England squad. He was at Arsenal. I said to him, ‘You’re coming to the ball too much; you’ve got your back to play and you’re making it easy for defenders.’
“I told him to come short, run off the ball. I said, ‘Go and watch Marc Overmars,’ and he didn’t know who Marc Overmars was. I was like, ‘You’re playing out wide for Arsenal, how can you not know Overmars?’”
In Oxlade-Chamberlain’s defence, he was a child when the ex-Arsenal man scored that goal at Old Trafford in 1998, the goal which he’s remembered most for in England.
He left for Barcelona in 2000 and later became Ajax’s Director of Football in 2012, having began his career with the Eredivisie giants.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
