Mesut Ozil has conducted an interview with the German version of Goal.com, it’s predominantly about the German national team and the upcoming European Championships, but there are a few snippets about Arsenal and his own form.
Being the diligent linguists *cough*, we turned to Google Translate for a helping hand…here’s what (we think) he said…
There are rumours linking you with Barcelona and delayed contract negotiations with Arsenal. Will you be playing in London next year?
There’s no hurry [on the contract]. I have two years left. At the end of the season we’ll see how it [the talks] go.
Arsenal are currently fourth in the table, is it a successful season given Leicester look like they’ll win the Premier League?
If we finish third and qualify directly for the Champions League [group stages] we’ll have at least achieved our minimum target. But this season it was possible to be champions, but we’ve left too many points on the table when playing smaller teams.
Would you have believed it if someone had said Leicester would be leading the table at this point?
I definitely would not have believed it. Nobody would have believed it. You can only take your hat off to Leicester. They’ve played every match giving 100% and are rightly at the top.
You were nominated for the Player of the Year award and are just two assists short of breaking the Premier League record, what do such accolades mean to you?
I’m proud of what I’ve done this season, but I never put the emphasis on personal awards, the team’s success is more important to me.
You’re 27 now, some of your teammates retired from the national team at 29 or ended their careers, have you given thought to what you’ll do after your playing career?
I hope I have a few more years to go. When I feel that I am playing my last season, I’ll have more concrete ideas, that when it’ll be the right time to think about itRight now would be the time. I enjoy that I have my hobby as a profession. What I know is that I will continue playing football after my career. Whether it’s in ‘the monkey cage’ [where he played in Gelsenkirchen as a child] or whatever, I couldn’t care less. I’ll never stop playing football.
Is there still a major career goal for you?
Privately, I think I’ll definitely return to Germany [to live]. There I feel at home, there’s my family. Sportingly, much is possible. I’m not saying that I definitely must again return to the Bundesliga or playing in Turkey. But I do not rule it out either. Maybe I’ll finish my career in England.
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You can read the full German transcript here. And if you’re fluent in German and spot any mistakes in the above, feel free to correct us in the comment section below…
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I don’t believe Ozil or Sanchez will sign contract extensions this summer, no matter how much money we offer, unless we seriously strengthen our squad, starting with a WORLD CLASS, proven forward who can convert the chances these two put on a plate.
If we go out and do that early, we may well just be able to tie these guys down for a couple more years.
Ozil is like a 3* Michelin chef who prepares gourmet meals for the plate in this situation I believe.
The rest of our players (the customers) are not dining on said meal. Instead they are replacing the food with a Weatherspoon’s microwaved full English and eating it with their hands.
My thoughts exactly. I’m probably reading too much into this but he says that Leicester “played every match giving 100% and are rightly at the top”, suspect the same cannot be said about Arsenal. We need to get rid of the prima donnas in the squad that do not put the team before them, I get the impression that the Walcott’s and Ox’s (is that right or Ox’? I’m mexican remember…) would place themselves above the team. I don’t like the Ox being all smiley after defeats and before crucial matches, its as if he doesn’t take them seriously, I… Read more »
Ox strikes me as somebody who might one day appreciate fine-dining. I don’t know what kind of cookery education they’re giving them down in Southampton. Refined palate one day, eating wet toilet paper rolled in cigarette ash the next.
Oxen?
Brilliant!
Whoops. My phone made me put that reply in the wrong place! Weird!
Lescott?
Brilliant post. I raise my glass to you, vino
Hopefully ozil,sanchez contract can put pressure on wenger to make signings.
Hope he retires at arsenal
Many, many years from now!
He needs to do more!
I know he runs a lot but his defensive work is close to nil. Both Giroud and specially Welbz do a lot more work defensively. Ozil needs two very disciplined cm´s or cdm´s behind and a Lewandowski type in front of him. Elneny and/or Ramsey like to press and run into the box and that leaves us with our beloved Coq. Who is by the way a decent football player but nothing more.
I do think that some of you don’t watch the games of die Mannschaft. Against Italy Mesut played as a n°6, he made 4 tackles, interceptions, blocks… Germany won 4-0 (he goaled a penalty to Buffon…) and his duo with Kroos worked very well. Ask Mesut what you wish and he’ll give you that. Contrary to what some may think Mesut is a most versatile player: left, right, n°9, n°6, n°10… Of course, n°10 is his best and most beloved position, but stop saying he doesn’t defend…
He played centre-half?
I didn’t know he had it in him.
Fucking hell. I can’t muster any more than that.
Don’t neccessarily believe that either Ozil or Sanchez will be looking to leave this Summer.
That being said, I do firmly believe that making some new key signings early on would make a world of difference in getting new contracts signed & sorted out.
If the boss fiff-faffs around in any shape or form, or especially if he leaves it until the last minute…it is asking for nothing but trouble.
Don’t leave it open, Arseblog. Tell us everything is going to be okay. Lie if you have to because I need that man in my life.
You never know what can happen in football
Unless you predicted us to have a run at the title and then fuck it up…
*puts on tin hat*
Or you confidently stuck 500 quid on Leicester to win the league at the start of the season.
Anyone with a working footballing crystal ball would have done that rather than predict our season of fuck-all reward for, er, fuck-all reward.
Is anyone else just insanely frustrated that it’s looking like he’s not going to break the record?
On the rare occasions we do score, the first thing I check is who made the pass haha – he should be on about 30 by now!
Mesut Ozil replaced my love for Cesc and I will forever be grateful for making me forget about that Chelsea cunt.
I believe he is thinking about playing with more teammates who are on his level and waiting to see what Arsene will do in the summer. Bring in Aubamayeng or someone like Reus and he stays, no doubt. just my speculation.
Theo for Reus is a tantalising prospect. That’s an upgrade if ever there was one.
Dortmund are going to be very pissed off.
I saw an amusing comment on Twitter “linking” us with Reus, Aubameyang and Hummels because our new away shirt is bright yellow like Dortmund’s.
I’ve always thought that maybe the rest of the world is fooled about Theo bc he still plays for Arsenal, scores some sweet goals every now and then. And the fact that Roy Hodgson always picks him.. maybe we can trick Everton into splashing 25 million. That would be hilarious
He would actually do well at Italy (AC Milan, linked) or Spain (Atletico Madrid). Look at Salah and Torres as examples. Pacy panicky ‘probably’-a-forward EPL-style wingers.
Surely no one outside England wants Theo.
The words “outside England” are superfluous here
I would think they’d be more likely, given the lower likelihood of them having actually watched him play recently.
I think Wenger is as much to blame as Theo is for his poor performances this season. The manager hasn’t given him the stability of one position in the team to concentrate on. He played a few games up top and started to do well, he was then shifted out to left, now back to the right… We all know he doesn’t have the footballing brain of an Ozil, so asking him to adapt to new positions is entirely on the manager. To further frustrate us fans, he should be clearly below Campbell in the pecking order. It is no… Read more »
Did you say upgrade? You can’t upgrade something to another unrelated substance. To the best of my knowledge, Reus is a footballer, Theo on the other hand authors children’s books when not scaling Kaboul’s feet…
I think the issue here is not that he is intending on leaving, but that he’d like to stick around and see what happens next season in terms of the club’s progress before signing a new contract. Unfortunately, the situation for the club is different, in that if he doesn’t renew his contract before the end of next season they’re in a position where he pretty much has to be sold after next season at a knock-down (comparatively) price to ensure we recoup at least some of his initial transfer cost. It’s getting to the point where you feel that… Read more »
We wouldn’t need to do anything. If Dortmund can afford to keep Lewa and eat a potential 30 million loss we can do the same on a 42.5 million loss.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we would. We’d sell him for 25 million with a year left on his contract and say we had to. That’s the Arsenal way.
Sounds like a normal dude. Hope we give him a reason to stay.
I’m not perfectly fluent but I think “Es hat keine Eile. Ich habe noch zwei Jahre Vertrag. Ende der Saison werden wir sehen, wie es weitergeht.”
actually means:
“Of course I will! Arsenal are the best team, and Arsene told me we are going to sign the best striker in the world! Ya Gunners, Ya!”
I’m fluent in German and that’s 98% of what he said. You missed the foul language about Sp*rs, though.
Was that the part where he said “Spurs sind spuren in die hosen”?
Just do something about those frequent injuries that has derail all the good work every season!
Not exactly “I love Arsenal and I’ll be here forever” is it? Can’t blame him one bit.
Not that saying that means anything anyway.
Would mean nothing. Remember RVP kissing the badge?
To me, he could do with running around a bit more.
So where are all the Gooners who didn’t think he “ran aran enuff”?
I hope he stays and retires in England with The Arsenal Fc.
Ya Gunners Ya!
I.d swap him.got kroos. Believe the whole team is set up to accomodate Ozil to the detriment of the whole. If he is an attacking player then he shud be part of the front 3 and provide a goal.threat more often, not in the midfield 3 leaving tje defence exposed
I read somewhere that he was gonna work on his ‘body language’ but I didn’t notice much improvement against Sunderland.. But.. If someone was finishing up front this would not even be a question mark anyways.. So many factors..
If a higher minimum target was set maybe this team would do better in the league! Or maybe I’m just clutching at straws 🙁
Can anybody tell me the number of chances Ozil created this season?
I think it was around three-and-a-half million.