Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain takes major step towards coaching career with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta keen to work with former team-mate

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been doing his coaching badges at Arsenal with Mikel Arteta interested in him joining the club’s staff once he retires from playing.

Daily Mail Sport understands that Oxlade-Chamberlain has been doing his UEFA B coaching licence in recent months at the north London club.

He has also been training with the Under 21s for fitness purposes as he looks to find a new club as a free agent.

The 32-year-old has been without a team since leaving Turkish side Besiktas in August and is keen to continue his playing career, with the ex-England man in advanced talks with Celtic.

It’s understood that Arteta is a big admirer of Oxlade-Chamberlain and has an eye on hiring him for the coaching staff once he retires. The pair have a close bond and played alongside each other at Arsenal between 2014 and 2016. Oxlade-Chamberlain made 198 appearances in a six-year spell at the Emirates.

At present, the oldest age groups Oxlade-Chamberlain could coach are Arsenal’s Under 19s or Under 18s because of the age limitations of a UEFA B licence.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is currently a free agent but has one on eye on his future post-playing

If he were to go on and do the UEFA A licence – which would allow him to coach the first team or Under 21s – it would take him up to 12 months to complete.

Arteta’s interest is understood to be motivated by wanting to have ex-players within the Arsenal set-up, which has dwindled in recent years.

Before Arteta became head coach in December 2019, the Gunners hired Edu Gaspar as sporting director in July that year. Edu left in November 2024.

Freddie Ljungberg coached the Arsenal Under 15s from July 2016 to February 2017, before Arteta brought him into his first coaching staff group in December 2019 with the Swede leaving in August 2020.

Academy manager Per Mertesacker, who is leaving this summer, joined in July 2018. While Jack Wilshere was the Under 18 head coach from July 2022 to October 2024.

When asked about this drive to keep ex-players within the club, Arteta said: ‘I love it. At the end, that history of the club, people who have lived those experiences bring something different.

‘It’s like an academy player that has been here since he was eight. He has something else in them, a special feeling.

‘And that’s the power of it. I would be more than happy to have more. I have some very personal relations with some ex-players that have been part of different teams in the history of the club that are so helpful because they have lived things in a different way.

‘Sometimes they have different perspectives as well from the outside of the things that we do. And that’s a big value to us.’