posting on X<\/a> on Thursday morning, Celtic are now confident of sealing an agreement for Oxlade-Chamberlain.<\/p>\nO’Neill confirmed earlier this week that he had held direct talks with the Portsmouth-born star over a move to Parkhead, with the Englishman said to be ‘very excited’ about the discussions.<\/p>\n
However, the Northern Irishman believed at the time of speaking that the 32-year-old would prefer to stay closer to London instead.<\/p>\n
He said:<\/p>\n
“I’ve spoken to him, but I’m sure he has plenty of options, maybe closer to London.<\/p>\n
“I’d be very interested in doing it. I’m surprised people haven’t taken him up.<\/p>\n
“I think he was very excited about what we were saying. He knows all about the club, he’s a big friend of Joe Hart and Joe has spoken to him – not on our behalf.<\/p>\n
“It’s something we’re interested in but if it doesn’t materialise, it doesn’t materialise.”<\/p>\n
Oxlade-Chamberlain now appears to have changed his stance on the geography of his next move, as he closes in on joining Celtic.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old will bring a wealth of experience to Parkhead, having won the Premier League and Champions League with Liverpool, as well as three FA Cups with Arsenal.<\/p>\n
O’Neill will want to use Oxlade-Chamberlain’s knowledge as the Hoops look to beat Hearts and Rangers to the Scottish Premiership title.<\/p>\n
Celtic Racing to Get Oxlade-Chamberlain Deal Done<\/p>\n
![\"oxlade-chamberlain\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/oxlade-chamberlain.jpg\"\/)
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One of the reasons Celtic are racing to get a deal and medical across the line is that they need to register a maximum of three new eligible players for their European campaign before 11pm on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Those players will then be able to face Stuttgart in the crucial Europa League play-off matches later this month.<\/p>\n
With 235 Premier League appearances and 51 in the Champions League under his belt, with 29 goals across those two competitions, Oxlade-Chamberlain could be a very useful weapon for Celtic against the Bundesliga side, and for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
![\"Celtic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/celtic-manager-martin-o-neill-looks-on-with-his-arms-folded.jpg\"\/)
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Related<\/p>\n
\t\t
\n\t\t\tCeltic Could Sign ‘Magnificent’ Free Agent Instead of Oxlade-Chamberlain
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\nThe Hoops are considering more signings after the January transfer window closed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtic are closing in on an agreement to sign Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on a free transfer, with a medical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-409406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"oxlade-chamberlain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/oxlade-chamberlain-besiktas.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n