Celtic midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has talked about his first two Glasgow Derby matches at Ibrox when appearing on the In The Mixer podcast…
Alex Oxlade Chamberlain reacts to the news of Salah leaving Liverpool and what he was really like to make him such a special player. He also explains why he had to leave Arsenal and what it was like to work under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool Since his move to Celtic he has already played in back to back Glasgow Derbies at Ibrox and gives us his fascinating insight into what that is really like!
“I don’t know if we’ve played them. We’ve had a few scraps with them, but there wasn’t much soccer from us! It’s just different,” The Ox admitted. “I can’t explain exactly why, it’s just different. And I think I spoke to Robbo (Andy Robertson) after the first game, and I didn’t have a good game, I came off at half time.
“And I said to Robbo, ‘that wasn’t pretty’. He said: ‘I told you, it’s not football, that game is not, it’s not pretty, it’s a war and you find a way to win.’”
Asked was it like Gladiators, he said: “Literally it is, it is. Like even off the pitch, in the tunnel, like the rivalry between staff and players. You’re either one or the other. There’s no sitting on the fence up there. You’re either you’re (the) Rangers or Celtic and that’s it.”
Avoiding criticism of the Scottish weather, he pointed out that it wasn’t always pretty in the north-west of England while playing for Liverpool. His debut winner in the closing seconds of the match against Livingston gave him the perfect start to life as a Celtic player but the final match before the international break was a disappointment for the club, losing 2-0 away at Tannadice to Dundee United to dent the club’s chances of winning a 14th title in 15 seasons.
“I think just being back in the country and in this culture,” Alex Oxlade Chamberlain said “Obviously I went to Turkey for a couple of years and it’s a different culture out there and the way that they see the game and just being in a dressing room with not many English or no English lads really, it’s different.
“So I think coming back into a good group of lads that are like-minded and shared similar experiences, it’s really good and I’m lucky enough to be at another club that’s massive and is really competitive and there’s pressure and expectation and all of those things. It’s just exciting and it is a big, big club,” the Ox added.
Watch the In the Mixer Podcast from Sky Bet below, the Celtic content is right at the end for those in a hurry…
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