Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's father has revealed that talks took place with Manchester United before the youngster made the move to Arsenal, with the former Southampton starlet choosing to move to the club where he most admired the style of play.

Chamberlain made the move to the Gunners in last summer's transfer window for an unusually high fee by the club's standards of up to £15 million with add-ons.

The 18 year old has already scored four goals in 15 appearances for Arsenal, and given his lack of experience in the Premier League, the youngster is showing maturity and skills that could put him alongside Theo Walcott as a future England talent.

And now Chamberlain's father Mark has revealed that his son was in talks with United last summer, but turned down interest from Sir Alex Ferguson in favour of playing for a club that he had always admired.

"There were a few big clubs in for him [during the summer]," he told talkSPORT. "We spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson at Man United.

"But he'd played against Arsenal's academy for many years and, while Southampton always got beaten, he admired the way they played.

"He'd always say 'why can't we play like Arsenal'? When the opportunity came along, Arsenal's a massive club [so he had to take it]."

For Arsenal, this has been a somewhat difficult season, and Arsene Wenger drew a lot of criticism over his moves last summer as he purchased five players in the final 24 hours of the transfer window.

And while at the time, Chamberlain had no experience playing above League 1, Wenger believed in the England Under 21 international's ability, and that looks to have paid off with his performances so far this season.

United, meanwhile, settled for three signings in the summer, in the form of Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David de Gea, the former two in particular of which have paid off so far.

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