According to reports in The Telegraph, England manager Gareth Southgate partly influenced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s decision to reject a move to Chelsea and join Liverpool instead last week.

The Blues had agreed a £35m fee with Arsenal to sign the 23-year-old midfielder, but The Telegraph says the former Southampton man decided to turn down a move to the Premier League holders in favour of joining Jurgen Klopp’s men after speaking with Southgate.

It is likely that the Three Lions boss told Oxlade-Chamberlain that he was likely to play more regularly and in his favoured central midfield position at Anfield, and an improvement is certainly needed after the BBC’s chief football writer Phil McNulty only gave him a 4/10 rating for his performance against Slovakia on Monday.

Chelsea supporters were quick to have their say on the story via social media, and many decided to praise Southgate as they believe that he has done them a favour.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

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