Robert Pires thinks Mesut Ozil is a bit miffed about Arsenal’s failure to spend big money on improving the first team squad.
The German international, who looks likely to leave the Emirates when he becomes a free agent next summer, has once again been the subject of criticism from former players and the media following the Gunners 2-1 defeat to Watford.
The negativity surrounding Ozil is a subject that SportBild [translated by Sport Witness] put to Pires, who still occasionally trains alongside the midfielder at London Colney, and the Frenchman was quick to defend his pal.
“Ozil is a warrior who wants to win something,” said Pires.
“To me, he seems so angry about the fact that Arsenal hasn’t put together the team with which he can make a difference.
“Arsenal has spent money only for Alexander Lacazette, €53m. That is not enough to be at the top.”
It’s an interesting take from Pires, albeit one that fails to take into account the fact that had Arsenal signed further high-profile players (which Arseblog News wholeheartedly wanted) there would have been little left in the wage pot to match Ozil and Sanchez’s wage demands. Ultimately, we’ve failed on many fronts. Which is very ‘us’ right now.
Pires was also asked why Arsenal are struggling to keep pace with their Premier League rivals.
He replied: “It is incredibly hard to stay at the top in England. But I still believe in Arsenal and, above all, Arsene Wenger. I find it right that he has extended for two years.”
Hmm.
Gazidis got a nice bonus though…
How we got a profit on transfers given the extra cash that came into the PL is beyond me. And City, United etc spent a lot and are up the top of the league. Hmmm.
I know what you mean, but you can’t compare us to City. They have bottomless pockets.
That is nothing more than an illusion. Its all smoke and mirrors. Arsenal have money. Lots of it. We have two billionaire owners. One of those billionaires happens to be an Oligarch who’s worth more than the Chelsea owner Abramovich. I am also still fairly sure we have more cash reserves in the bank than any other club in world football. We also generate one of the highest match day revenues in world football. Not to mention we are also playing football in the richest league in world football. I agree with the fact we don’t have Man City wealth,… Read more »
We only have one billionaire owner. Usmanov is a major shareholder but not an owner and not even on the biard
Without getting pedantic, a shareholder is an owner. I have shares in Tescos which means I own a proportion of Tescos.
Strangely they haven’t approached me to be on the board, so I haven’t got any say in how Tescos is run. But that is different to ownership.
@Pedant + @Martin
Technically they’re both just majority shareholders, but you knew what I was getting at.
In brief:
We have two guys that are absolutely loaded that don’t put any of their own money into the club; Stan because he doesn’t want to; Usmanov because he (as you pointed out) isn’t allowed to.
Without being pedantic, they can’t both be majority shareholders. But they both own a proportion of Arsenal’s shares. Unfortunately Stan owns more so can control what goes on.
Well obviously Stan is the ‘true majority shareholder’ but its not totally incorrect to categorise them as both majority shareholders, because in essence, that is what they are.
Out of all of the shareholders at Arsenal, those two have the majority split between them.
Its not a case of not allowed too, its a case of why would he dip into his own pockets to improve the squad and thus the clubs value which in turn would improve Kroenke’s value.
I think the 2 of them could be good for the club, the problem is the majority owner is tighter then a fish’s asshole when it comes to money!
Yes that is the case. He is frozen out of the board because of Stan, and subsequently isn’t allowed to spend any of his money because Stan nor the board will allow it.
As an example he offered to pay off the stadium debt back in 2009 and they said no. Instead Stan + the board opted to raise season ticket prices.
Yeah. But in the context in which ‘owner’ was used, Arsenal doesnt not have two owners who are in a position to impact it financially. Only one billionaire owner is in a position to do so. The other one is an investor but not a financier.
I don’t understand why make this argument? Who cares about the Oligarch owner who owns a minority share if he isn’t allowed to spend it on Arsenal. SK is only going to spend what comes in. Thats the reality of the situation.
What is AW suppose to do? He can only ask and push for bigger budgets to spend but if the owner doesn’t want to then what can he do?
All 3 of those clubs are willing to spend more then they bring in. How do you compete with that?
You’re asking the question “how do you compete” as if we don’t get beaten regularly by teams with fewer resources than we have. You sell better (taking advantage of inflated fees), then you buy younger (reducing your wage bill) and make sure your manager is a modern tactical specialist.
And if your current manager can’t compete fire him, and give another manager the same chance Arsenal gave Wenger when he was a relative nobody in 1997.
@caligunner
Are you really asking that question? Just off the cuff here:
He could spend more money on better players
He could bring in better coaching staff
He could bring in much needed backroom staff and relinquish some of his office duties, enabling him to just solely concentrate on the footballing front.
There are bucket loads of things that Arsene Wenger could do differently, to move Arsenal forward, but he doesn’t want to do any of it.
So here we are.
I agree that you can’t compare us with city. But when they’re spending 200m a summer and you’re making a profit of 40m, then you can’t expect to even compete for the title. I don’t expect us to spend that much but at least don’t make profit ffs!! Wenger has really become clueless and it’s so sad to see that from a man we once idolized.
It’s not Wenger’s money being withheld, so why are you blaming him? Don’t tell me you still believe he holds all the cards in how much money is spent!
His faults are in player and game management. And he has plenty there. The owners and board control the money.
I think its quite clearly the opposite. Wenger isn’t clueless, the guy is anything but. He speaks like 5 languages. So if there is one thing you can throw at him its not that he is an idiot. Its just as simple as he has become watered down over the years. Everything has a shelf life, the players do, so its clearly not out of the realm of possibility that the managers do as well. The game has moved on and Arsene hit his peak in 2004 with that truly unbelievable achievement of winning the league unbeaten. And he hasn’t… Read more »
And we have full pockets
The top 4 for the most part have made more profit from player sales than we have.
Also, why did you skip Spurs? Is it because they don’t fit your “it’s all about money” narrative?
For obvious reasons.
urgh why even mention spurs
They’re doing the arsenal way better than arsenal
You mean losing at home to Chelsea and drawing at home to Burnley and Swansea
Martin, I know having a cheap shot at the Totts is easy (& uplifting) to do but sadly we can’t kid ourselves that they aren’t better than us now. I said at the end of 15-16 that we would not finish ahead of them again with Arsene in charge & got slaughtered for it. I can’t see how anyone would disagree with that statement now.
It was a Sp*rsy comment then, and it’s a Sp*rsy comment now.
Maybe meant drawing with the best team in Europe in the most prestigious competition whilst we’re in Serbia for some Thursday night fun.
We’ve beaten the winning club across one leg on more than one occasion. If we’re going to be selective about the past let’s at least not do it to the benefit of that lot!
Well this story came at just the right time. Cheers Bob! Isn’t he on our books?! Even our own staff adding fuel to the flames. What’s next, Steve Bould admits that since 2013 his only responsibility is keeping an eye on Joel Campbell’s spending money?
That’s no mean feat mind. He buys a jumbo Toblerone everytime he’s at an airport and it’s costing us a fortune.
Sorry, apologies and what not but just going to say one more thing about Watford. I knew it reminded me of something I’d seen before. Then I remembered, Swansea at home, 18 months ago, needed to win to keep the title alive. Went in front against the run of play, they equalised and we just stoppped. Totally panicked, lost our heads and lost to a totally inferior side. Here it is, in all its glory. For anyone who still thinks this is just a blip.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35647629
Maybe Ozil would not demand astronomical wages to stay if a real team had been built
I don’t blame Ozil at all. Wenger never built the team around him like he should have. Finally after all those years he got him a pacey forward, but Ozil needs pacey wingers and a solid midfield behind him in order to get the best out of him. There’s nothing special about managers like pochetino and mourinho, but they do the basics really well. They have an image of the formation they want to play and build a team where there is 2 players for each positions, and the players they buy are specialists in these positions. At Arsenal we… Read more »
Will be interesting to see if the ‘Injury riddled’ Gibbs becomes injury free now he’s left the Colney Creche’, like most others who leave.
Isn’t that how we found out that Bellerin was good because he took advantage of his opportunity when an injury happened to MD? I know AMN isn’t a natural RB or RWB.
This goes to the fundamental question of what are Arsenal about? Are we in this genuinely trying to win a title or are we just happy to stumble across a new Bellerin? Because while Bellerin has been good, he hasn’t been part of a title-winning squad.
Aren’t we all, Mesut. Aren’t we all.
If we buy top players then Ozil will be on the bench or sold, based on his usual performance.
You mean creating countless chances assists
Another “what could have been” to add to the pile. All very sad that the age of Özil is coming to an end without being what it should have been.
Still, I feel graced to have watched him these past few years. Everything else aside he’s a truly beautiful player.
After Ozil, we had 3 FA cups! We should not forget that!
You’re totally right Jack. I suppose the hope was that we’d become a real domestic and European force, playing beautiful football with Özil at the heart of it. 2013-14 had some promise, but as is always the way with us, we never really followed through on it and have really regressed since then. I’m still holding out for Wilshere to make a glorious return.
True dem tings.
What can be infuriated also is that Wenger has never be willing to build a team around Özil apart from the golden time of Cazorla and Coquelin in midfield. Wenger is more worried about his home-made players like Chamberlain, Ramsey or Wilshere and giving them chances after chances after chances and messing up the squad to integrate them at all cost. The actual system can’t bring the best out of Mesut, point. Wenger acknowlegded it last season pointing out it is favorable to Ramsey and not to Özil. Useless to buy £42 M a player to not offer him the… Read more »
What golden time? Cazorla and Coquelin played a handful of games together, the club experienced a good run of results and you expect us to believe that partnership was the goose that laid the golden egg.
Quote another duet that worked better.
Morcombe & Wise. Peters & Lee/Dina & Marvin/ Marvin & Tammi. Abbott & Costello/ Simon & Garfunkel/Elephant & Castle/ Peaches & Herb/Spick & Spam/Night & Day/Rodgers & Hammerstein/Bremner & Giles/A Train & Miles/Bathroom & Tiles… and the list goes on and on and on and on…
Yeah I agree with Pete on this. It worked for a time because Cazorla’s a technical freak and Coquelin took teams by surprise at first, but it was never really a midfield that would have gone the distance in a title race or controled games against top teams (Bayern away that year is a case in point). The fact that’s pretty much the best midfield we’ve had in 5 years or so is a poor reflection on the manager and scouting team.
I think a large part overlooked about Cazorla’s effectiveness in the middle was his game intelligence and positional discipline. I think he figured out a lot of what he needed to do on his own.
I have complete sympathy for Ozil here. You join Arsenal having been persuaded of Wenger’s plans to take the club forward over the next few years. You then find yourself playing alongside the likes of Walcott, Chamberlain, Ramsey, Welbeck and Ramsey as Wenger continued to persist with this ridiculous British core experiment and refused to cut his losses and bring in some proper midfielders.
There’s only two Aaron Ramseys…
For Wales it’s often looked that way! Probably not the man to play behind Ozil though… it’s just shoehorning yet again
There is a huge distance between the peoples who work for Arsenal company and the people who fund the company (aka the supporters). I can’t see anything else than making the company less profitable in order to get these monkeys off our backs…
The supporters don’t fund the company any more, the tv companies do
TV companies support clubs because viewers are mostly supporters. Stop watching TV games and they’ll pull out the finances. Stop buying merchandise and buying match day tickets. Hit them in the pocket and they’ll listen, not sure if it’s the right thing to do just yet but Kroenke might force the fans to do just that.
Never gonna happen. Supporters are like ants, cockroaches, weeds.. step on one and another will take its place.
True… only impact will be through boycotting a cat a fixture or protest outside the ground. The media would lap it up, it would embarrass the club and Wenger which out sponsors wouldn’t like.
So many of our season tickets belong to corporates and travel agencies these days too
They won’t listen. We need a new owner that is willing to put his hand in his pocket
Fair enough
I don’t care, Mesut. You’re paid £140,000 a week to deliver top quality performances on the pitch and you’re yet to do it this season; if anything your introductions have cost us points so far. Fix up fella.
Finally a sane voice!. Did I miss something we’ve got Lacca and Sanchez özil’s job is to assist those high calibre attackers and play football as per his contract. I love özil but soon I’m going to stop giving him the the little •• above his O
He has hardly been on the pitch with both lacazette and Sanchez. Stop the narrative, please.
Lacazette costed more and he is paid more. I wait for a good input from him.
His job is to create chances and help with build up play in the concept of how this team operates. He does that. Most chances created. Just imagine if this team was built around to enhance those strengths?
Ozil has created more chances than any other player so why blame him if they are not taken?
He should be scoring more goals himself too, I’m sure he can tell you that finishing isn’t that easy
He (along with all other players) could be, and should be, doing better.
Ozil is being criticised because this is an article about him
This isn’t news, every Gooner is bloody furious with the clubs spending policy.
So he shows his anger by missing a sitter? Stop whining and start performing till you are in that Arsenal shirt.
He does perform but we are missing the many chances he is creating
Accusing ONE good chance to be the failure of a game is truly cheap commenting.
It’s funny. We bought Özil knowing he creates chances. Now everyone is complaining about his defending and scoring. What about every other player that doesn’t score or defend properly or create chances?
The others at least usually pretend to give a shit. He’s the only one who doesn’t defend or go for 50/50 and justify it by saying it’s not his job. Defending it’s everyone’s job when the opposition have the ball ffs!
Has he said it’s not his job?
‘I’m not the type of player to chase after the ball the whole time, everyone knows that,’ Ozil told SportBild
Nuance man, nothing is so absolute that that translates directly to ‘never defends or challenges for the ball’.
I always question that logic. It’s like saying Kante is nicking a living because he doesn’t “score enough goals” or create chances. “Yes I kmow we bought him to be a DM, but he is a liability because he doesn’t score. Ignore the fact that his interceptions and blocks are on the top but he doesn’t score, so that makes him useless”. That sort of reasoning.
There is a big difference. Kante helps the attack by winning back the ball and passing to a more creative player. Ozil actively undermines our defence by ducking out of challenges he is expected to make. It is actually worse than playing with 10 men because at least then another player should realise he has to do the job instead. It is like playing with 9 and a half men
Throw Walcott into the same team and you may aswell be defending with 8 by the same logic
#KroenkeOut
Sanity!
I am annoyed at our spending policy. There is no ambitions. In 2015, after the summer of Ozil (2013) Sanchez (2014) and 2 FA cups, we only signed Cech in 2015. As we all know we came second in that season. If we had bought a 2 out of CM and CB or ST in that summer, I am convinced that we would have won the league. This would have changed the shithole situation we are in now.
The “what ifs” about injuries or signing one more player just don’t water with me anymore. We would’ve found another way to fail, because the personnel may change but so long as the manager is in charge the mentality and the frailties will remain.
// hold water sorry
Agreed but if we did not ‘waste’ that summer we would have had more chance for sure. I think we were the only team in top 5 European league not to sign an outfield player weren’t we??
Could have got Lacazette for 25mil that season. The club doesn’t want to win the league, they want to do just enough to get champions league football
Absolutely bang on. It’s the collective mentality of the club that needs to change. That stems from the manager.
It’s almost like we buy some great players and then after 6 months or so they become arsenalised and start to perform like the rest of the squad. They all see to be in some comfort zone and except mediocrity as standard.
The only people at the club that demands better are the fans it seems.
But muh transfer profit…
I’m angry that one-on-ones aren’t scored and that tackles aren’t bottled out of. What you gonna do about that Mesut?
Carry on creating chances that we constantly miss
Iwobi’s effort can be excused because it was a very good save from Gomes. But what about Özil’s shot? Such a tame finish Gomes barely had to move. Özil has to be held accountable.
Accountable for this miss…maybe (bear in mind he’d just come on & hasn’t played much at all this season).
Accountable for the loss to Watford…nope, not in the slightest. There were far bigger failings & factors involved.
Please stop falling for let’s blame Ozil naritive being bounded around by far far too many.
Ffs…. why argue like it’s a black and white situation? Ozil can be both a creative genius (which he definitely is) and also be poor defensibility, lack effort, ruthlessness and cojones! All at the same time.
Football is a team game. Ozil can and has a track record of succeeding in football. World Cup winner, Champions league winner. In the right team. No ifs or buts.
He along with nearly every other player at Arsenal lacks one thing individually… desire.
As a team we lack structure and a system.
Ozil is a warrior! Oh Bobby too long looking on the mirror
Yeah, a guy with Öil’s palmares is a warrior. England is full of warriors, but empty of winners.
Warrior? Really? He chickens out of challenges. Technically brilliant but calling warrior is a joke!
Pires is an absolute dreamboat, but a confused one.
Also, the talk of money is such a red herring.
Did you see Spurs last night? How does a team that, man for man arguably have a lesser squad than us go toe to toe with officially the best team in the world? Tactics.
Poc went in there with a very specific tactic and gameplan with the aim of catching Madrid out.
Could you ever imagine Wenger doing such a thing?
Sadly no.
Their wage bill is significantly less than ours too
And without their first choice midfield of Wanyama – Dembele.
Poch played Harry f*ckin Winks and Sissoko and came out on top, almost…
If only we could tempt the Sp*rs manager to join the best club in London. At least we can dream, can’t we
Wenger wouldn’t have even scouted Real Madrid and you can almost guaranntee Arsenal would have let in 4 or 5 had they played them last night.
Just the last time we played them there
Just like
Well the last time we went there we beat them
And they had a better team then. But we did too.
In 2006 – Nearly 12 years ago….
Let’s not be Liverpool football club aka history channel
I think the men in there arent even- at the very least- trying to repay the way Arsene defends them in public. The only reason I think the great man’s time is up is not beacuse of incompetency but because there is no one who plays for the badge anymore. Yes, his decision making is baffling but remember; it has been like that before: does substituting this guy right here at the 2006 final ring a bell? Anywho its going to be a sad ending. But after he’s gone id sell 95% of the current squad, keep the remaning 5%,… Read more »
I know everyone likes to jump on passion and heart and “not playing for the manager/badge” intangibles, but I don’t believe it anymore. I think this team is playing exactly like how they’ve been set out. They’re playing as a team that haven’t been coached enough on tactical and positional intricacies. Xhaka was hanging outside of the box not because he was lazy, but because as a team, they’re so focused on they way they’ve been coached, which is “attack attack attack” he was probably hanging there hoping one of the CBs would win the ball and pass it to… Read more »
You really think xhaka was “coached” to do that? Coached to literally jog around leaving your defense vulnerable? I think Wenger has his flaws but he surely knows better than this, surely! After 20 years of top flight management I would certainly think so
Does he know enough to drop a player if they keep doing this?
Is it a coincidence that almost to a T, every version of his arsenal for 7-10 years, no matter the players, make that same mistake? You think it’s just coincidence?>
For Pires to come out, it indicates Mesut must be fairly vocal either at the training ground and/or behind closed doors with club “legends” such as Bobby. Kind of speaks to the opinion of the club’s direction and leadership, board and coaching staff, by our players.
Doesn’t excuse the play but you can see why after 3 FA Cups and no sustained title challenges, a World Cup winner is asking where’s the urgency?
I still find the lack of spending thing to be a bit of a red herring. Give a good manager the cash we’ve spent on players like Mustafi and Xhaka or even give him those players and we’d likely be much better. I think you’d have to spend Man City amounts to overcome the manager’s flaws and even then we might not. My feeling is that the squad is good, if lacking in a few areas, but can only be as good as the manager. Ozil and Sanchez know he is a spent force.
Ozil will fuckin absolutely thrive at United, Chelsea, Barca or any other team with world class players where he can quietly do his work without being under the microscope 24×7. Sadly we could add only one more genuinely world class player in next 4 summers. And as much as we want to criticize Kroenke, Wenger is equally to be blamed if not more. Had we added at least one world class player in the summers 2015 and 2016 each, by paying the big buck we would have been in a much much better position.And this was absolutely not a difficult… Read more »
Should have spent the bloody cash pile while it was still worth something
Ozil is a lot of things, good more than bad, but he certainly is not a warrior
Yeah, a guy with Özil’s palmares can’t be a warrior. And England is full of warriors and full of trophies. Oh, wait…
You clearly don’t understand what the word warrior means
Booty Warrior?
#me too
Arsene Wenger is the biggest issue right now. Nobody wanna go to him, nobody wanna stay out of strong players. Ozil understands what kind of club Arsenal is right now. It is unsportsmanlike. Wenger prolonging his contract for doing nothing. Chambers prolonging his contract for showing nothing. Abominable concert. We need to be like big club, where there are responsibility. Ok. But reality is that Wenger has all power but no responsobilites for his endless failures
Nobody wants to play for a kroenke team. Have a look at his other franchises and you’ll see the same things we are seeing at arsenal.
if it is good excuse for you – good for you.
We all complain about the lack of investment in the team. We can all see we need better players in a number of positions. The players (Özil and Sanchez) see it too and at their age they want to be part of a team that actually wants to win something big. Unfortunately we think the 4th place trophy is enough.
If we thought the 4th place trophy was enough then the club would have got rid of Wenger when he failed to get it last year. So as for what our ambitions are now, your guess is as good as mine
I’m done with watching matches as long as the Fraud stays. I was the one who always watched them, no matter what. But now, ive become uninterested as the players themselves. Title gone after 8! matches. Dont care about FA cup wins, neither the players do. Would be sweet to win the EL, but im sure we wont, and if we manage to do somehow, we would be still laughing stocks for the likes of Chelsea, Juventus, Bayern, Real etc. Its sad, but i really hope we will finish as low as possible, maybe a 10th place will remove the… Read more »
Despite all the flack Ozil gets, I am a huge fan of his and he truly is a special talent. I truly hope we persuade him to stay and we sign a couple of players.
Look, Ozil does not wanna play under Wenger. May be he could have found motivation to do his best under another coach. For one thing Ozil has always been as scapegoat in Arsenal but he made great impact on 15-16 season which we lost because Wenger believed in Giroud so much. Generally speaking, nothing will change until Wenger leaves
The main issue at this point is Wenger and his recruitment policy. The owners fault is highlited only through the failings of the Manager, as in if he was to spend better and build a good enough team, the board would be a secondary issue (apart from missing cojones and diretion). Point being…Özil is not suited for the premier league and to make matters worse the midfield was never custom build to harbor him. Xhaka is basicaly a midfield version of Özil, El Nenny is not premier league first team material and then you rely on happy accidents such as… Read more »
Not sure that many players would want to come and play with Ozil looking at his form. The team look like they need strong leadership, rather than new players right now. The we can see who is good enough.
I have total sympathy with Ozil wanting to leave Arsenal. As a club, it’s slowly being bled dry by an owner, CEO and manager who don’t give 2 farks between them. What I don’t have sympathy with is his lack of professionalism and subsequent lack of respect for team mates. From where we were when we signed him, what it meant to us at the time, and where we are now, he’s been a massive disappointment. We are a club built in his image. Talented when we feel like it, regularly going missing, and now completely bored of the whole… Read more »
A tree does not keen a forest, özil can’t do it alone,I’ve said this over nd over,the interview is özil’so body language, missing a sitter is not a taboo, but how he reacts afterwards is my concern,let wenger play özil, Laccazet nd sanchez together for once and let’s see what happens, my opinion though.
Let’s dissect what Bobby has said.
1. Ozil is angry with the lack of spending
2. Bobby thinks Wenger is the right man
It’s obvious from this that the problem is the board. The Kroenkes, The Usmanovs, Keswick, Gazidis etc. They have done fuck all for this club. They are a spineless bunch who hide behind Arsene.
Imo if Arsene is not there we wouldn’t even be able to compete for Lacazette.
Here is some sense! For all his flaws, Arsene always wants to win, and I am sure if the board were keen to splurge money he would be quite happy to do so. For example, the question “what player do you want Arsene? Money no object?” has probably never passed the boards lips, even hypothetically, despite their job being to work to eventually make that happen. Instead we hear we should now follow Leicester’s example.
Arsene is not the type of guy who would demand a huge transfer budget as opposed to Pep who i am sure would have left Man City had he not got the signings he wanted. Bald Pep is being labelled a genius for doing fuck all(assemble a bunch of stars, Voila!). The difference between then and now in our case is we miss someone like David Dein who had a vision for the club and who would just go out there and get the players he thinks can work well under Arsene. Prime example is Sol Campbell. Under no circumstance… Read more »
I don’t see it that way. Pires is clearly voicing and supporting the frustrations of Ozil but I think he’s caveated it with his support of Wenger more than anything to not damage his relations with the club. Let’s face it he can’t come out and say “Ozil s pissed and its Wengers fault”. It’s telling that he’s even come out and said this.
Also let’s stop pretending a few signings is going to fix things, our problems run far deeper
Until we get bought by a Gulf state it’s not realistic to expect anything from Arsenal. That’s the reality of the game now… all the overseas viewers don’t give a shit that the prem is just a dick swinging contest between Sheiks and Russian criminals. Not like it’s the English game any more.
Why? Because it’s affected how much we’ve offered him, that’s why. Big players come in on big salaries means his agent would expect the same for him. Just sell him in January.
We needed a true attacking winger: a true upgrade on Walcott. Someone who skilfully mixes it up when possession play doesn’t break defences. Douglas Costa, Willian, Di Maria, Draxler, Salah were all available for the right money. We needed a midfield destroyer: akin to Casemiro, Vidal, Matic, Fernandinho, Wanyama. Both our first choice CMs are metronomes with one other skill: Ramsey being box2box and Xhaka being a regista. Elneny is then only a metronome. (It’s probably why I still rate Flamini, not skill-wise but role-wise.) This works in a high press like Barca, Dortmund, or Liverpool, because everyone disrupts the… Read more »
Xhaka’s a registrar ?
Still conflicted on the issue of investment. On one hand, I resent Kroenke. I hate the direction of the club, but at the same time, I don’t like the idea of success bankrolled by an individual a la Jack Walker. I really don’t know how I feel about the club I’ve supported for thirty odd years right now. Thank god I hold season tickets for rugby (my second love) rather than football.
These are quite strong words from Bobby and its good to see. Not sure the word ‘warrior’ is what comes to mind when I think of Ozil and whether or not he is dissatisfied with investments, which is really understandable, it doesn’t excuse his performance. I know he created a few chances but he missed a sitter, and disappeared after ten minutes, not pressing the man for the second goal, and chickening out of headers, and losing the ball in our own half just outside the box. You want the money, you have to put away big chances; you want… Read more »
Whatever the position of the team a player has the duty to give 100% everyone he is on the pitch. Do any of you get to load around atcwirk because you are not surrounded by workers you would prefer. ? I say get rid of ozil and his sulking ways . Sanchez can join him too on the train out of Arsenal in January once we recoup very little for either players. You either want to stay and fight for a prestigious team like arsenal or pack your bag and look for greener pastures. Is Ox enjoying his amount of… Read more »
Mesut Ozil created more goals than any other Premier League player in 2015/16 season and was but 1 short of equaling Thierry Henry’s record. 12 months later and he is struggling to perform consistently or reach the standard set for us in 15/16. So what has happened? The performance of a professional player who has the hunger and desire to win should not be unsettled by a debatable (I say so because not every one agrees) under investment in the squad. I am not saying that he should not be miffed if he believes there has been a lack of… Read more »
We all want more quality investment so what’s new there?! ‘It’s not his fault if he’s creating the chances that others aren’t putting away’. FFS, is that all his attributes entail?! And are we supposed ok with that?! Because he can’t shot for shit. He doesn’t really defend. And he’s been known on more than one occasion to physically wince away from a challenge. But hey.., give him the ball and he’s sure to create a chance for someone else – even at his very best he aggregates responsibility to another. I love me some Ozil, I really do, but… Read more »
Wait…Santi training? Or is this an old pic?
Understandable. It’s been so obvious for at least two seasons that we need world class bolstering in midfield. Just hasn’t happened.
I’m not Ozil’s biggest fan, but he has a point here.