Mesut Ozil has released a statement expressing his disappointment at being left out of Arsenal’s Premier League squad.
With 19 non-homegrown players on the books, Arsenal had to cut two names to fit with squad profile rules. Alongside Ozil, Greek international Sokratis also missed out. The duo had already been excluded from the Europa League group stage squad for the same reasons.
While it’s not impossible for Ozil to return to the fold in the new year – clubs can re-jig their squad following the January transfer window – everything points to the German having played his final game for the club.
Writing on social media, he said:
“This is a difficult message to write to the Arsenal fans that I’ve played for over the past few years. I’m really disappointed by the fact that I have not been registered for the Premier League season for the time being. Upon signing my new contract in 2018, I pledged my loyalty and allegiance to the club that I love, Arsenal, and it saddens me that this has not been reciprocated. As I have just found out, loyalty is hard to come by nowadays. I’ve always tried to remain positive from week to week that there’s maybe a chance to get back in the squad again soon. That’s why I kept silent so far.
“Before the Coronavirus break I was really happy with the development under our new coach Mikel Arteta – we’ve been on a positive way and I would say my performances were on a really good level. But then things changed, again, and I was not longer allowed to play football for Arsenal.
“What else can I say? London still feels like home, I still have many good friends in this team, and I still feel a strong connection with the fans of this club. No matter what, I will keep fighting for my chance and not let my 8th season at Arsenal end like this. I can promise you that this hard decision won’t change anything in my mindset – I will continue to train as best as I can and wherever possible use my voice against inhumanity and for justice.”
As things stand, squad size limitations aside, it’s not clear how we reached a point where our highest earner and one-time record signing isn’t considered worthy of a place in the senior squad.
While Ozil fell out of favour under Unai Emery and had a bit of a bust-up with Freddie Ljungberg, he featured regularly in Mikel Arteta’s matchday squads until lockdown restrictions were imposed in March.
There have been some suggestions that Ozil’s absence is a result of his decision in December to speak out about China’s persecution of its Uighur community; a statement that the club distanced themselves from for fear of commercial repercussions in the region. It’s worth pointing out that the midfielder played 10 consecutive Premier League games for Arteta after that.
Ozil was also included in the squads for away games against Brighton and Southampton in June, not long after his teammates accepted a pay cut to minimise the financial strain on the club as it came to terms with the financial fallout of the pandemic.
When Arsenal subsequently made 55 members of staff redundant, Ozil told The Athletic that he felt his decision was justified because the club had rushed players into making a decision without all the necessary information. His agent had earlier made similar comments on Rafael Honigstein’s Steilcast podcast.
Most recently, Ozil offered to cover the wages of Jerry Quy, the Arsenal employee who fulfils the role of mascot Gunnersaurus, when he was released on a temporary basis by the club. The gesture came less than 24 hours after Thomas Partey was signed for €50 million and a few days after he picked up an £8 million bonus for staying at the club into the final year of the contract he signed in January 2018.
Ozil will be free to leave the club next summer and can speak to foreign suitors in January.
always such a victim Mesut Ozil
How dare you say a word abt mesut !
Haha
I think we all acknowledge he is king at PR but let’s set out the truth best as we know it 1. China human rights- What ozil did affected the commercial aspect of the club and the club’s quick response showed the lack of proper values just because of sponsorship. Did ozil speak out because of a PR stunt? I think not. Accusations about him not pointing out Human rights abuse in turkey is missing the point and is more or less a deflection. 2. Demands for assurances for the pay cut- the demands he apparently made weren’t out of… Read more »
How is the Human rights abuse in turkey more or less a deflection?? He spoke out against the human rights abuse in China, which some think was not OK for finical reasons, and some say good for Ozil for speaking out. But if he truly cares about human rights, he should speak out against the Turkish government and their brutality against the Kurds. You cant have it both way, I am sorry. I think the club is 50% at fault for giving him this stupid contract, and Ozil is equally at fault for being a hypocrite and so stubborn. Both… Read more »
The point I’m trying to make is that if he, you or I protest at one thing the fact that we haven’t elsewhere doesn’t take away from what we are currently protesting. I’m from Kenya. If I join the protest for poor treatment of others in different country and I don’t do the same in mine does that take away from what I am currently doing. We can always find faults. Recognize and give fair appreciation for that without that. We all know if you or I had the same influence as ozil had with the president we’d more than… Read more »
Posted without completing some thoughts.
@bloggs would it be possible in future to add an edit option.
…Recognize and give fair appreciation for that without detracting or devaluing the current action…
Wenger was in charge of all football decisions & had the final say.
If the club (100% owned by Kroenke) is responsible it was putting too much faith in Wenger & Gazidis & later the Wheeler Dealer. Two of whom left under a cloud & the third like a rat deserting a sinking ship having gnawed away at the foundations first..
I made a comment about Turkey but that isn’t to say I don’t admire that he spoke up about Uighur Muslims. He is a prominent and celebrated figure in Turkey, his voice carries alot of weight, and yet there is silence because he’s pals with Erdogan. It’s easy to be a hero when there are no personal consequences for you, much harder not to overlook abuses when there are. As in that message, he holds himself out, creates an image of himself as a fighter for social justice, yet endorses an abusive regime. That’s hypocrisy. I’m not sure what point… Read more »
It is deflection because the point being made is the possibility that Ozil’s comments about China are the reason for his exclusion (I’m not saying that is true, just that this is the specific question raised). Assuming that his failure to speak about Turkey shows him to be hypocritical or a coward or stupid is *irrelevant* to the actual point–no one, absolutly no one, believes it could be the cause of his exclusion. So, here’s why it’s a deflection: Speaker A: “Ozil is being excluded from Arsenal because he angered the Chinese government.” Speaker B: “But he didn’t speak out… Read more »
Mesut Ozil: I will “wherever possible use my voice against inhumanity and for justice.”
Person: But you don’t and especially in one glaringly obvious case in which you could make a great deal of difference.
Is that ok for you? That was a quote from the article I commented on? I don’t know who this speaker A is you’ve used to frame what I said.
Of course it doesn’t help explain the reasons behind the exclusion which I also addressed.
There are country where talking about your faith to others is officially punished by death penalty if your faith is not the majority faith. This is worse than China. Ozil saying that BLM support is selective should look in the mirror. I support the Uighur of course but Ozil’s hypocrisy needs to be pointed out.
Didn’t the victim just receive an 8 million pound LOYOLTY cheque from the club?
He’s like a boyfriend/girlfriend that doesn’t allow you to break up with them…
David who hurt you….
Nobody ever mate. I have nothing but love in my life!
If the man had any pride whatsoever he would have gone and found another club. He has every right to sit out the contract he was offered but Arsenal have every right not to play him. That he has opted to sit out his contract tells us all we need to know about him. Whatever the reasons for him being dropped are, he is not good for moral. Wenger said that allowances were made for him at training and you can’t have different rules for different players. You only need to see the cohesion under Arteta to understand this is… Read more »
Why can’t you have different rules for different players? There are different salaries and contracts for different players, and different jobs on the pitch, and different responsibilities for promoting the club and advertising it. Isn’t it naive to think that all players are treated equally, when clearly they are not?
I think there are acceptable differences, and unacceptable differences. See Arteta’s ‘non-negotiables’.
Also noting as the highest paid/most creative/other plaudit player, you will be a role model to others in the team and youth ranks. If you look at when he had most free reign (later Wenger years), we had no spine, no resilience and yes we scored beautiful goals occasionally, but at least three of our forwards had a major strop.
Sure, yes, but I wonder at what point an element of hypocrisy creeps into the acceptable and unacceptable distinction, and into the all-around standards against which a playmaker is judged. Arsenal didn’t sign Ozil to be a hard tackler or a gritty player; they signed him to create goal scoring opportunities. No one in his right mind would expect Ozil to firm up anything let alone a team’s spine – that’s not his purpose on the football pitch. I understand what the club are doing here and why they are doing it in cutting Ozil from the competitive squad, and… Read more »
He does not fit our system anymore. Arteta wants players that will press and that has never been part of Ozil’s game. He could do it but doesn’t and that is perhaps why people do not consider him to be up for it. MA has always been clear about his non-negotiables and I believe him when he says Ozil has been left out for footballing reasons. Players of course get different salaries but those on the highest salaries should be setting high standards for the others. Ozil seems to think that he has been left out because of his remarks… Read more »
Arsenal USED to sign Ozil for his goal scoring opportunities during Wenger period. The game play has changed now, so either you adapt or you switch club to one that suit your style. Cech is a old school goalie, but he tried to adopt to modern football who plays out from the back (not the most convincing though) The point is, if he still loves football and Arsenal as he claimed, then leave us and find a club that doesn’t require him to be a hard tackler or gritty player who plays to his strength. Dun try to disrupte the… Read more »
One things for certain, they’ll be no statue outside the Emirates for our Mesut.
And so the PR war begins…
The difference is he’s no longer fighting an unpopular coach on his last legs so he won’t have nearly the support he did when he fought Emery. He would have certainly known before the year where he stood and actually chose this. Let that sink in — he chose this
Yup . Emery is one thing. But affection wise arteta equals him and freddie beats him hands down. Flamini said arsene used to give ozil the occassional day off.. 3 managers say he’s not working hard enough. Says it all. He just retired the moment he got the bumper new deal.
He retired before that. He was never a great player , even in Madrid. He had a fantastic second season when we signed Alexis but as far as his career goes he always was a gifted passenger. He is part of Wenger falling down from grace as he always saw him as a really talented player but he never had the shoulders and character for high level football. Goodbye Mesut I’m neither sad nor worried for you with your payslip. #nickedaliving
Like him or not your simply can’t say he was never a great player.
Don’t forget his fallout with the German setup.
He chose this. Period.
Stay at home for a year and bank a fortune, or play football for a lot less money?
Ozil is living right now, and you can’t knock him for that
Except those weren’t remotely his choices. For ease let’s say he makes 25m this year if he never plays (350k per week plus 8m loyalty bonus). The club was on the hook for that no matter what. He could have easily pulled a Sanchez etc. and said to the club – “I’ll settle for 17m if you give me a free transfer”. The club saves 8m in a year we’re trying to raise funds for transfers. He then gets to go sign with anyone he wants & just needs to find someone willing to pay him 150k a week to… Read more »
Somehow, it feels like it is absolutely his choice to stay rather than go somewhere else to play. Why would he want to leave if he is paid 25m and stay in the center of universe than going somewhere remote and have to put in the real work? I’d do exactly what he did.
On the other hand, I’d love to see he pick up the bills to help all the employees made redundant in addition to Gunnersaurs until they reach retirement. And he sure has the capability.
I would add maybe the pandemic situation didn’t help. No clubs were taking big risk. Maybe even the players themselves had a less appetite for risk. Ozil for example just started a family, had a close call with muggers etc. The virus rules out the MLS, Ozil rules out China. Overall I want Ozil and Arsenal to part ways but not in this ugly manner that’s going to go on for another few months. Everything about Ozil has been said but the one thing that sours me over this whole situation was Arsenal “leaking” only Ozil’s name during the paycut… Read more »
I will knock him for acting like he is in love with the club and is so disappointed at not being able to play, not for doing a Winston Bogarde.
At least Winston was honest about it.
I will knock him, i will knock him the fuck out the money grabbing slag
Begins?
But i have to admit his PR team is incredibly good. The timing is immaculate – just like Ozil in his prime. They keep patiently waiting like a hungry lion for its prey and at the right moment devour it. Worth every penny Ozil has paid them.
I guess it depends what their objective is. If it’s only to get people to pity him then he’s clearly winning over some people and alienating others. If it’s to look after his best interests as a football professional then their approach strikes me as nothing other than unwise. He comes across as spoilt and whining, not wanting to be part of a collective – no decent club will come in for him after this. He’ll drift into the backwaters of the game and become irrelevant which will also damage any realistic hopes of making anything from his sports shoe… Read more »
I don’t think he is interested in the game of football anymore, he is all set to become a politician in due course of time.
Yes, but it is still a bunch of BS. No matter the spin, the PR masterclass, whatever, it is still not the truth, just ego games (like politicians) and he has refused to take any responsibility. The club still paid him massively and will pay him much more, while he should take a good long look at his delivery when on the pitch, which is appaling.
Yea.. Looks like the msg was ready for months
He’s lost the plot at this point though. He wants to build a lasting brand to keep making him money even after his career ends. He no longer has the Addidas sponsorship and is banking entirely on his M10 brand. Rather than taking a payoff and moving on which would allow him to play and build his brand – he’s choosing to take shots at a popular manager (he’s at least smart enough to refer to the club even if it’s Arteta he’s complaining about) and sit out an entire year.
He hasn’t taken a shot at Arteta though. That particular comment is a bit of a reach.
He’s accusing the club of “disloyalty” by not playing him or selecting him for the PL squad. Arteta is the one who makes those decisions & the one he’s ultimately complaining about. Ozil & his pr team are smart enough to label his complaints about the club even if it’s 100% Arteta he’s accusing of disloyalty.
That’s an assumption. We have absolutely NO idea how autonomous Arteta is. We have NO idea what led to Ozil being ostracised, whether it was the comments about the situation in China, whether it was the pay rise issue, whether he really is underperforming on the field or whether he called Mikel a c-u-next-Tuesday to his face.
We have snippets from him and deflections from the club. Unless you’re claiming to have inside information…?
So whatever we THINK and assume, it isn’t stated that Arteta is who he is talking about when he says “the club”.
Edit: …when he says “I was no longer allowed to play…”
The issue with the whole it’s the club and not Arteta benching Ozil is it just flies in the face of so much of what we know about all the parties. It’s clear the Chinese comments had nothing to do with Ozil’s benching as he played a bunch of games post that. It’s also clear that Ozil has a history of falling out with managers – Emery, Freddie, Arteta & there were even questions about his relationship with Wenger at the end. Arteta has shown himself to be anything but weak willed to the point where he was even promoted… Read more »
Again, assumptions. Saying “it’s clear” doesn’t make it so. I’m making the point that we don’t have as much information as you seem to have to make assertions as you’re doing. For example, Emery let slip that he was told not to play Ozil. Freddie favoured the kids he knew from the his time at the academy. Arteta played Ozil in pre-season as well as before the stop. So is it REALLY just a case of Ozil falling out / clashing with coaches? The truth is I don’t know and I’m okay to admit that. I’m not going to create… Read more »
In addition, name me ONE business owner who would condone, purely from a financial perspective, an employee refusing to use his most expensive asset that he is paying for, especially if that asset is the only one of its kind in the array of assets he has…
Dude Kroenke owns tons of American sports franchises. This literally happens all the time where teams will cut players and eat chunks of their salary if they don’t think they can perform/are the right fit anymore. In fact Kroenke’s LA Rams cut the running back they signed to the largest RB contract in history only 2 years prior – eating a bunch of salary cap money in the process. So to answer your question:
KROENKE. Go right on down the list of PL owners by the way – a lot own American franchises who do this all the time.
It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to assume that somehow this is a club dictated decision that somehow Ozil isn’t a part of. Especially as the whole it’s about the money thing got blown apart when we signed Auba to a larger contract, Willian & Partey this year. Either way the best thing for the club is that Ozil is going to fade away either in Jan or the end the of the year and no longer will be the story. Time for both sides to move on.
So you’re saying it’s the club. Or Kroenke… not Ozil falling out with his coaches?
I think you’re having trouble reading…. The evidence very clearly points to this being Arteta’s decision & that Kroenke would back him in that. Kroenke has backed his other decision makers in the past when they’ve moved on from big name players. You’re performing a lot of mental gymnastics to try to put the blame on the club rather than recognizing Ozil has a history of problems with managers.
I know this is a big shock to Ozil defenders but footballers learn from a young age that you are not ENTITLED to start games based on talent alone. Or how much you earn.
Well, if you ask Mikel, you are. On talent at least.
Is the asset a rare antique piece of furniture and the business owner a farmer? Cause that farmer would have about as much use for that furniture as Arsenal has for Ozil at this point. And probably as many potential buyers in a COVID-devastated economy (none).
Sorry but no, please get your own facts right. Unai Emery did not say that. Kindly produce the quote where Emery said “I was told not to play him”. It does not exist. What Emery said was he had the support of the club in making team selections, as all coaches/managers should. “We have one agreed strategy because the most important thing is the team.” He was talking about moving towards a team that presses from the front, not about Ozil. He specifically said in that presser “now is now the time to talk about Ozil”. And “Freddie favouring the… Read more »
What makes the Ozil stuff so bizarre is just the extent to which you have embrace conspiracy theories and ignore evidence to support him in this.
Thank you. Emery is (rightly) being forgotten in a hurry. But under Freddie? The sheer entitlement that reeks from every word of that camel dung is repulsive in every sense. It has been a long journey from being over the moon about Özil to defending him against the “nicking a living” shite to having misgivings about the size of that contract to being frustrated with his performances but still supporting him against Emery in what was a clear power struggle against an unpopular manager, to being done with him and his antics. I am a proper Özil hater now after… Read more »
Fair enough, the comment wasn’t stated in the best way but the fundamental point I am making is one given by le Professor… “What’s happening at the moment between him and the club looks to be more confrontational, it’s not [only] based on sport, I’m convinced.”
I will be the first to admit that he is divisive and flawed as a man (Erdogan support) and as a footballer (going missing at times) but there is no way that this is purely laziness or greed or whatever other vice you want to levy at him.
Except that everyone inside the club all knew that ozil was too lazy to keep his fitness during the lockdown. Arteta cant even play him because he hasnt been match fit for a long time. Despite what the pr team says, Ozil is actually not even interested in playing football anymore.
No comment…
If I recall that interview in the Athletic with Ozil during preseason, he hinted it was more of an issue with the people in the board room and not with the manager(s).
Ozil has become Arsenal’s Winston Bogarde. And for those who don’t know Winston as bought in 2000 & given £40K a week by Chelsea without the then manager Vialli knowing anything about it, who was then sacked 2 weeks later & replaced by Ranieri who didn’t want to know anything about him, who was replaced by Mourinho who never knew he was on the books. He played a handful of games in 4 years but spent the time training with the reserves & then the academy juniors as Chelsea desperately tried to force him out the club. Chelsea fans slaughtered… Read more »
Disappointed … but hardly surprised, surely. No point going over old ground but it’s pretty clear – even to Ozil – that his association with Arsenal is fast coming to an end. When he finally leaves next June he will go down in the record books as the most expensive flop (for whatever reason(s)) in the club’s history. A shame, but there it is.
Lets not be shortsighted mate.
Not exactly a flop
Aside from the bonuses we don’t know about, Ozil will cost the club £147m in transfer fee and wages. Maybe not a complete flop given his assist record in earlier seasons, but definitely, horrifically, bad value for money.
Let Silent Stan worry about value for money. Ozil helped the team significantly to a few FA cups, i won’t forget that. I’m not happy with what’s happening right now but I’m not gonna rewrite history too.
Legend before contract extension. Flop after. To be polemic correct.
FFS, he created one fifth all the chances created since he joined until now. You can hate him for his attitude, but not for his performances in Arsenal shirt.
Cya
Cyan is a lovely color indeed.
Pascal Cygan, lovely player.
Thank you
He talks about loyalty in that message. Loyalty is a two way street. Tweeting about mascots is not loyalty. Skipping meetings, giving 50% in training, binning the non-negotiables and bucking solidarity is not loyalty. Oh, and refusing to play in games north of Watford is loyalty either.
Bro you made half of that up. Bet you think Cesc was loyal and did more for Arsenal.
Arsenal fans can be the biggest hypocrites.
Cesc once played for us on a broken leg.
he also Refused to play for us on pre season while he secured his move to barca, Put in transfer request and insisted that we sold only to barca so had to accept a set fee from Barca, was not part of a winning team and played for Chelsea our enemies with JOse.
Yeah but Ozil is worse for accepting the clubs offer and wanting to play for the club.
Make it make sense.
Are we also getting a nicely-written message from Sokratis seeing as they’re in the same position? No?
Thank you Papa for maturely accepting the situation without whining or feeling entitled to more.
I honestly hope Sokratis gets picked up somewhere and we can work out a deal where we pay him to end his deal so he becomes a free agent. I’ve never seen a negative view about his professionalism and he was even trying to get a new place in the summer.
Chalk and cheese.
I’m sure Arsenal would let either of them go for free in January if they can get the wages off the book.
I imagine there aren’t 25 million souls wondering what Big Papa thinks on it all …
Only because he doesn’t draw the wages Ozil does. The Ozil animosity from fans is all about his wages, and how they think he should just voluntarily give them up so the club can spend elsewhere.
Were Arsenal in the CL and pushing hard for league titles and chock full of talent, the same fans wouldn’t give him another look. It is all because they think Arsenal can take those wages, mix it in a stew, blink 3 times and VOIlA! Insta-Champions.
No it’s all about his output. One always fought and gave if his best. The other played when he fancied it.
Sokratis has been really professional.
I don’t know why but I get the impression that if Sokratis was upset he’d be more a horse’s head on your pillow kind of guy than a whiny message writing kind of guy.
The situations are not comparable and everyone, including you, knows that. If they were similar, we wouldn’t have over 200 comments, and counting, on this post. To start, Ozil (deservedly or not) is one of the most famous footballers in the world. Doesn’t that change things?
Everyone, including you, knows that two situations do not have to be *perfectly* analogous to make a comparison between them.
Do you have a credible source for the claims you’ve made?
He could’ve written even more imo.
I’d add that “loyalty” means not hiding on the pitch during the Europa League Final, Arsenal’s biggest game in the last 5-6 years.
Arseblog’s player rating for Ozil after Baku: 2/10
His analysis: “The big stage, when we needed a performance, the biggest star and the biggest earner was dismal again. His time at Arsenal is up.
Sad to see things end like this
Ozil the social justice warrior, depending if the cause suits his agenda or not.
haha – isn’t that everyone on earth though?
No. özil is a hypocrite. His close personal association with a terrorist supporting (ISIS), minority murdering (Kurds), democracy oppressing (journalists, academics, political opponents, judges, etc.) dictator like (k)erdogan negates all of his credibility. He is only a propaganda mouthpiece for a deplorable authoritarian regime, a neo-ottoman “sultan” terrorizing his own people! He is not forced to be that. He is right about the terrible plight of the Uighurs and his charity work with children is also commendable. But no amount of compensation can wash his conscience clean. He is living in a horrible glass house. “First, remove the beam out… Read more »
I actually mostly agree with AgderColney, but I don’t think it’s relevant to the issue of why Ozil is not playing for Arsenal. It’s possible (possible, not determined) that he is being excluded for his defense of the Uighurs; it is not possible that he is being excluded for his hypocrisy about Erdogan.
You are right. It is beyond the point. The whole Ozil-saga with all its facets is dividing and tiresome. Let’s hope we can soon move on more united.
Here goes….It’s nice to be able to look at others and tell them how to lead their lives when we have previously done what they are now doing. Medieval torture, crusades, sectarianism…. Shall we start with our government, preaching peace, but supporting a massive weapons industry. Or the many invasions over the years. Where do you think new weapons get tested? Let’s not even start with the priests. A lot of people would have their tyrants and dictators back, because at least they had amenities, infrastructure, food, and much less rubble. What I am saying here is one mans insurgent… Read more »
We disagree on that. In the 21st century we should have standards. But, I think we can agree that there is a lot of hypocrisy and these are complex issues. We can’t solve those here. As for sports and social issues it is commendable when someone uses their platform to help others at least by spreading awareness (poverty, health, minorities, etc.). Arsenal used to be associated with such class and modern football hollows that out. The current situation is just sad and dividing. Can’t wait for the Ozil-saga to be over. Would like to get excited by the next breakthrough… Read more »
At least getting this out of the way early on in the season means Arteta won’t get the same question in his press conferences over and over and over (apart from maybe the upcoming weeks!)
Yes he will. After any loss or draw it will be “Do you think if you’d had a creative midfielder like Ozil in the squad you could have broken the opposition down?”
Or after our normal injury crisis ” Do you regret having not named Ozil in your PL squad now?”
We’ve got another whole season of this…
Yep, even more annoying, no one is actually giving any answers. All our opinions at this stage are based on assumptions on what did or did not happen. Dont think the media will back off.
The answer is to treat the media like the parasites they are and simply swish them away every now and then and ignore them the rest if the time,
And it will allow ozil to concentrate solely on Fortnite for the next 8 months. Win win situation
Edu : Ozil has to train harder…
Arteta : The team is evolving …
Per : It’s not about the training, things have changed off the pitch …
It is a shit show from all parties tbf
Biggest shit show is from ozil. He never justified even half the salary he got.
You are definitely right there, but still a shit show from the club to waste resources like this without a decent explanation to the fans. There are no winners here
It’s nice to know that our BFG is still the same stand up guy
This is the quote i saw from Per :
‘A lot has changed away from the field.
He got married, has a family. Perhaps the focus has changed. Nevertheless, he is still happy and happy to play football.”
So while yes, he did say things have changed off the pitch, he is really saying the same as Edu ? Am I missing something, is there something BFG said that suggests something different ?
You’re absolutely right. BFG was actually suggesting that Ozil’s focus has drifted away from top level competitive football.
But Ozil fans think Per is backing up their conspiracy theories. Hilarious.
You are misquoting that. Per said ‘He got married, has a family… perhaps his focus has changed. Nevertheless, he is still happy and happy to play football.’
This is just Per’s opinion. You maybe just read the newspaper headlines who (of course) sensationalize everything.
There is something seriously wrong when we’re paying him a huge sum of money not to play yet letting 50+ peoples jobs go
This ding-ding is clearly between Özil and the hierarchy. Stand a billionaire, and he’s punishing a multi-millionaire who won’t tow the line.
His stats were improving under Arteta, and I’m sure he had instructions to exclude him. Think Guendouzi was collateral damage of the new approach.
In both cases, heavy handed, and indulgent. Tried to force him out, went about it the wrong way. No matter what he does or say, he’s done here. Thanks for the memories. Ya.
*Ding-dong
I’m confused- “Ding Dong” has completely different connotations for me a la Terry Thomas…
Ai carumba.
Helloooooo…..
What a frightful shar…
Or Maggie Thatcher.
Ding-dong, back and forth, like a bell.
End.
“Avon calling” showing my age here…
We would have loved to have it the other way round. His insiting to stay means we have to let 50 people go in order keep the agreement.
He could have saved them if he looked for a new club earlier this season or late last season. But he chose to sit on his arse and ‘EARNED’ his fat 18 million contract and + bonus. But then what do you expect from someone who refused a pay cut to possibly help saved other people jobs….No matter what excuses he gave, a half decent person would not turn down the chance to help other people in need. In this sense I see him as an equal to Stan, cold and calculated.
Can you stop lying to yourself that those employees were let go BECAUSE Mesut didn’t take a pay cut? It’s lazy, especially when the information is available.
As for the rest of what you wrote, if he’s just sitting on his arse, why is he constantly in the training pics we see (including the one used fot this very article)?!
But these two things aren’t really connected? Footballers aren’t employed in the same way as normal employees. By the sounds of it we have actually offered him the chance to walk away but he’s not interested unless he gets all his money (which I don’t massively blame him for to be honest!).
There are players who rejected the pay if they were injured a lot, they loved and respected the club too much (think Zanetti did that). When you don’t give back, you shouldn’t really be ok raking massive money and he hasn’t been giving back for long (when he played as well).
He might take the payoff now though. No longer on the players sheet. He was probably hoping for possible gametime and get the incentive bonuses maybe. Now that that isn’t an option, wonder if he’ll move on? C’mon Ozil, SIGN DA TING!
Completely Separate issues. When you ‘restructure’ a business as Arsenal would phrase it, you don’t let go of your biggest assets. Players are the biggest assets at any club. Also Ozil was a contractual mistake which happened years ago – I am sure Arsenal would love to rectify it but they can’t.
If they really wanted to get rid of him they should have changed his squad number. That would really mess with his social media/image. I’m thinking 4 or 25. So instead of M10 it would be M4 or M25 I prefer the former as it does leave London.
M15 as he’s running rings round us
M25 FFS lol
Why is arsenal the only team to do this pay-cut and 50 redundancies stuff.
And you know for sure that Arsenal are the only team because…?
Do you know that for a fact?
Whatever Arsenal do is news, nobody cares about the rest and so it goes unreported.
Because they have to pay Ozil 18mil + contract that he “EARNED” to sit on his arse doing nothing. So other people who actually do the hard work had to leave.
So they fired 50 people because Ozil didn’t take a pay cut then found 40m+ for Partey just a few months later…?
Really?
Well a Partey would be useful for the squad..unlike someone who continue to pick up the big fat check for doing nothing…and I am talking about his performance the last 3 years, not just recently, since he signed the contract…and dont tell me that some dick should blame for giving him the fat contract….he managed to con them and many of you that he deserved that contract…but has earned it…sorry..a big fat no…These last 3 years, he provided more creative action on social media than on the pitch. So happy to see the back of him come Jan or June.
….but has earned it = …but has he earned it?
They aren’t. Both Everton and Leicester have cut jobs while Pool and United are trying to leave the PL altogether.
Check his squad number on the website
M10 works because it no longer exists.
I believe it’s now the A414 (maybe Auba could wear that idk)
Given that it’s a big part of his ‘brand’ that he’s trying to build, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in his contract that he has to be the no. 10.
Could it have come down from Josh to stop playing him? We’ll probably never know and I guess at this point it hardly matters. There’s only one more chance to register him in Jan, then it’s sayonara.
The words I didnt want to see: “No matter what, I will keep fighting for my chance and not let my 8th season at Arsenal end like this. I can promise you that this hard decision won’t change anything in my mindset”
Please Ozil, just leave in Jan and get this over with!
I can promise you that this hard decision won’t change anything in my mindset
Yeah, that’s either a threat or a promise.. Regardless, he ‘s chosen money over playing time, and he’s entitled to do so. He’s a professional human being with a career, bills to pay, and dreams for himself and his family. Chances are whatever choice he made, he made it himself, and .. well. End of story.
But this statement *does* – again – sound like complete marketing bullshit made up by some consultant in a meeting.
You’re not wrong – he’s chosen money, and he’s entitled to do so – and by many accounts, he’s doing great charitable stuff with his money, which is far more important than money in the long run. But I do wish he could go and make his money somewhere else where he is wanted!
far more important than football, not money, that should say
You really do have a picture for every statement, don’t you?
Ridiculously petty and childish. Basically guaranteed he’s never getting back into the squad.
Is it possible for you, as a popular Turkish figure, to denounce the Human Rights abuses of the Turkish government Mr Ozil, oh mighty, saintly defender of humanity? Asking for a friend in jail for defending others’ basic freedom of expression.
I think all that can be said about this situation has been said, but we would all like to find out whether this is driven by the Arteta, the executives, the owners or comes as the result of outside pressure.
His poor performances on the pith drive this. If he was still pre-contract Ozil on the pitch he would be playing 100%.
Ahh yes, The Arsenal managed by The Arteta
“No matter what, I will keep fighting for my chance and not let my 8th season at Arsenal end like this”. Is it just me, or does this seem akin to a husband that’s wife announced there marriage is over moving into the spare room and declaring he’ll “keep fighting for another chance” even after she’s moved her new fella in…? Probably just me.. I do see both sides tbh, but pointless playing the blame game. Everyone needs to accept the love affair is over and go their separate ways. This situation has been toxic for both the player and… Read more »
Speaking from experience?
Ha. No… But I do have a friend….
It has festered because he has a contract and he has prioritized the money over actually playing football. Most players would choose to play because they love to compete and see how far they can develop. Ozil did not make that choice, tells you more about the player than the club. The club has been direct, you need to leave, we are not going to play you. He made his choice, he’d rather have the money.
Reading between the lines, the last line of that statement is the one that sticks out for me. I’d rather not go into politics to be honest, but when the Club decided to delve into political movements AFTER distancing from Ozil’s concerns about Uighurs in China…a potential conflict of interest has occured. Just my opinion and obviously speculation, We will never know the real story and i hope one day we do. But from a pure footballing point of view, it’s an absolute shame we haven’t had the best out of him or utilised him in some capacity. To me,… Read more »
He played 10 successive Premier League games under Mikel Arteta after he made those comments. Whatever the reason, it’s not that.
But let’s not let the facts get in the way of tinfoil hat wearing bs.
They may have fallen out over this in a latter stage. Could have asked him to refrain from messages like that in the future or smt.
There are probably other things going on but the club is leaving us with just assumptions.
Could be that the pressure was still growing during that point and then during the lock-down the club had the time to analyse and make a decision as the pressure had reached boiling point.Its possible.
The most plausible reason has got to be the pay cut debacle. Ozil being the highest earner not taking the pay cut, i think was a sore point because only his name was leaked to the media, and i know other people who did the same still played but none is on same level/profile/influence as him. Even though he was in a matchday squad after that he never played and that seems odd too cos we struggled in some of those games. Was it arteta way of coming to terms with that decision made for him? maybe but we will… Read more »
You never know how long it takes for the Chinese government to react and what negotiations happened between the club and China behind the scenes to try to make amends. Just look at what happened to the NBA in China after the GM of the Houston Rockets made comments about Hong Kong. The entire economic situation of the league was altered (including the salary cap). My brother lives in China and has seen how things work there first hand (though he still enjoys his life there and would not plan on moving back). I do think the comments on China… Read more »
I feel for your brother.
My bro makes 150k a year to teach English to the local elite with government ties. He’s not complaining. Much like Arsenal, he’s taking the money.
As a sidenote, the Houston GM was kept on for almost a year after making those comments and then just resigned this week. I have no doubt the comments on China played a significant role as he potentially cost the league at least a billion dollars in revenue.
Unless the Chinese government were in “discussions” with Arsenal about what would placate them and when an apology / retraction wasn’t forthcoming, they levied a threat which Arsenal responded to by dropping Ozil.
The above may be far-fetched but the point is that not everything happens in a perfect timeline.
Hey guys, very interesting stuff about China and the Rockets and Daryl Morey.
Perhaps it was also China’s fault Mesut Ozil dropped a 2/10 performance in Baku when we had a CL place on the line?
What did the other players rate in that game? I don’t remember.
Yes quite a few fans discussing China have conveniently forgotten that Ozil disasterclass in Baku.
https://arseblog.news/2019/05/arsenal-1-4-chelsea-europa-league-final-player-ratings/
At 2/10 he was the LOWEST rated player, along with Kolasinac.
I’m not sure how helpful it is to the larger debate about Ozil being cut from the squad to point to a single game in 2018 in which the average score for a our starting 11 is 4.1 — clearly we sucked collectively that day, and the real message we should have taken from that game was ridding ourselves of Emery.
Well, you did ask for the team ratings.
so what? Is blogs rating iron-clad? Auba also disappears in so many games. You can’t use a few games to propagate your arguments
I don’t think that’s established as a fact, Blogs. It’s certainly a piece of evidence weighing against China/commercial considerations being the cause, or the sole cause, of his exclusion. But we don’t know (or at least I don’t know) whether Arteta was given a free hand when he first came in and that management/ownership intervened during the lockdown. We don’t know whether the paycut refusal *combined* with the Uighur issue led to a decision (Arteta’s? the Kronkes’?) to stop playing him. The complete exclusion of Ozil from playing after the lockdown is still a mystery. Remember, it was a total… Read more »
Ironically, not a thing you’ve written has been “established as a fact” either. Arteta emphasized discipline, fitness and unity post-lockdown. He repeatedly talked about how “everyone was welcome on the boat”. Nothing mysterious there, he was quite open about it. Then both Ozil & Guendouzi were sidelined, while AMN, who had been out of the 1st X1, worked his way back into the line-up. Arteta pointedly lavished huge praise on his application and commitment to training (hint, hint). Arsenal fans unanimously agreed promoting Arteta from Coach to Manager was well-deserved. Well, this is the flipside of that. It’s the manager’s… Read more »
There’s no irony at all. My point is that I don’t know and neither do you. Arteta knows a lot more about football than I do, and infinitely more about Arsenal and its players. But despite that, I still find it hard to believe that there has not been a single match–league or cup–since the restart that Ozil would not have made the team better. Not, “why does he not start every match?” Not, “we should build the team around him.” But not one single situation, against a strong side or a weak one, at home or away, against an… Read more »
Let’s not also forget that the Chinese broadcasters refused to say Ozil’s name and also didn’t promote Arsenal at all in their advertising for matches following what Ozil said. 10 matches of this and Arsenal read the writing on the wall. Ozil’s wages are nothing compared to Chinese revenue. I’m not saying this happened, just that the he played 10 matches argument is full of holes.
Finally closure.
Dont blame him for this statement, he is within his rights after being dropped from the PL squad. The club should have expected this. Lets see how Edu and Arteta react. Will their inexperience show? Sad to see how this situation is panning out.
I would expect them to say nothing. That’s what they should do.
Yeah, there’s a lot of views that Ozil is being hard done by, because Arteta hasn’t addressed his issues in detail, but frankly that’s just good professionalism and management. The fact that Ozil keeps making these statements is more of a reflection on Ozil’s approach to the situation than any lack of rationale by Arsenal, imo
Exactly. And don’t give him the oxygen of publicity, which after all, is actually what this non event bs PR statement is actually about. Next step – “The Martyrdom of Mesut” , the book, film and t shirt.
I expect the club to continue promoting M10 and try to sell as many shirts as possible. They need to recoup some of the 25m after all.
It’s his ego talking, that’s all. And it’s nothing unexpected, as per his behaviour so far and the influence he has from that horrible agent of his. That guy has a massive ego as well.
It is also within his rights to work hard and justify his salary that he gets.. the way de bruyne, aguero, david silva, kane, vvd etc. do.. but those rights he is ok to ignore isn’t he.
Right, grand that’s the line through it now. No more Ozil shite talk, we all move on. Contract is up end of season and this “hero” moves on to whoever is mad enough to pay him.
The last sentence from the statement is weird, is he saying why he was not included?
No he’s just stirring the pot…and let’s face it this whole thing was written by his PR team!
he’s adding fuel to the flames of the rumours of why he was not included.
he/his team are masters at manipulation and controlling the narrative.
sadly, many of his fans are too fickle and more than eager to swallow the bait, hook, line and sinker
he is certainly pointing to something and the reason is probably to say that it is rather because of his comments, than his level of performance. also, he played under Arteta, but how you get a new coach by telling him, you are not gonna use the highest earner(not using best player) because of political comments. this is not me defending him,just thinking about it.
I really don’t get it. Talent + Effort = Game time. If you don’t deliver enough on one or both of those you don’t get picked. Does he actually think he has delivered enough since he signed his new contract? I mean I really respect him as a person and his efforts for the community etc. But for so long he has not been able to reach a level that was good enough for him to get picked. So eventually you get marginalized to such a great extend. If he loved playing football he would have made a change. He… Read more »
This is the most reasonable comment here, and I agree with every word.
Well said.
OZIL DISAPPOINTED BY ARSENAL EXCLUSIONFANS DISAPPOINTED BY OZIL SAGAI thought Disappointed means you get something worse than you expected.
Personally I am way past that stage now.
I would understand this a whole lot more if we’d suddenly, out of the blue, axed him. It’s been made painfully clear to him for a while that, rightly or wrongly, he no longer has a role to play in the squad Arteta is building. Harsh, but these things happen in football. What happens after that is down to him. He’s had the option open to him for some time to show some pride and decide that he should be playing football and if that’s not at Arsenal, it’ll have to be somewhere else. Instead he’s decided to simply stay… Read more »
The last 3 years he have been more creative off the pitch than he ever was on the pitch. Should have been our best player every time he is on the pitch but more often than not, was more like no 7 to 10th best player on the pitch if not the worst, at times.
If he was half as good on the field as he was at PR, we’d win the league every season…
Zzzzzzzzzz, Can someone wake me up when he has gone!
Oh, wonderful. Özil uses the social media.
Now his agent will speak. They will even get someone to fly a “#ÖzilMustPlay” banner or something.
This is boring. Özil has become clickbait instead of a player
You really expected him to be quiet about it? cmon…
He kept it quiet while there was a chance, now there’s not he said what’s on his mind, you can agree or disagree, but it is what it is.
The problem is the club been quiet as if it was normal to drop your highest earner, huge fan fav and huge image for the club without giving a proper explanation, this leading to thousands expeculations and bad mood around the club and the team…
and this gave him the platform to be the “victim Mesut Ozil” that y’all say
It’s like i own a company. Mesut is my marketing genius. I cant sit there and ask my sales team (auba/laca/pepe) to work their shit off and produce results while telling my marketing team to relax. Sales aint gonna buy into that shit. Then theres the support crew (admin, IT etc..) these are equallyvaluable members who make the company successful, defend against virus and all that shit. And they have to be paid less and do more while watching some marketing asshole stroll around the office with a cup of latte while occassionally coming up with some good idea…. ideas… Read more »
I’m surprised you got voted down for that analogy…I guess the truth just hurts some people.
There’s something wrong at Arsenal that is not clear to the fans. This is a War that can’t be understood.
The cynicism in his words is astonishing. Can’t wait to see this drama come to an end. Extremely boring stuff.
This guy is asking for “loyalty” when he couldn’t be trusted in any big games, or away games at his best for us then he completely gives up on playing football in general as soon as he signs the big contract. He does not want to go play elsewhere because his playing career is done. He knows he is in decline. He knows he doesn’t get star player special treatment anymore and he knows he can’t keep up with the modern game and he knows he cannot inspire himself to try harder. It’s been reported multiple times he has been… Read more »
Well its over now.I hope some team picks him up in January,just to watch him on the ball again.He is one player i really enjoyed to watch every time he had the ball.A rolls royce.
I’m indifferent towards Ozil playing for us or not, but in the end this is a waste of resources on a huge scale so I think the fans are owned an explanation on what went wrong.
Am I the only who is dissapointed that we just have to accept this situation without any true elaboration?
“Am I the only who is disappointed that we just have to accept this situation without any true elaboration?” Probably not, there are many that are curious. If you deconstruct the different parties motivations, it becomes clear this “we are not going to play you position” from the club is probably done in part first from footballing reasons and second from monetary considerations. If Ozil was not in Arteta’s ultimate plans, there is no point in playing him, those minutes are better given to Saka or someone else. And that footballing decision is supported by the fact we won’t have… Read more »
Yeah, but we’re not going to get the truth, at least not until this saga is well in the rearview mirror. In one way or another, Ozil has misbehaved without breaking his professional contract, and it seems that Arsenal are done with discipline and have moved on to punishment. It would have been best for Arsenal FC had the two sides worked it out and we had his elite skills in the team, but the club has decided that we can achieve our goals this season without him. I’ve never understood the portion of our fanbase who don’t rate Ozil… Read more »
I get the point…..there are definitely games since March where we would have been better with Ozil…(not all of them but some) but I’m guessing Arteta believes changing the culture of the club is more important than the short term gains by having Ozil play some weeks. If he is trying to get all the players to buy into what he wants (the non negotiables) then if he picks a player who isn’t meeting those criteria, but does have tremendous talent, what does that do for his standing with the players? (obviously I don’t know this is a fact, it’s… Read more »
Yeah, impossible for us to know what is actually happening in training and behind the scenes, and while I love the culture-shift Arteta has brought to Arsenal, I don’t see why that can’t include Ozil — as it did before the pandemic. Ozil met Arteta’s non-negotiables requirement then, so something else broke-down to complicate matters. What bothers me is that Arteta is a brilliant communicator (Wenger-esque), a largely unproven but super tactician (even evident vs City despite the result), and an excellent man-manager (as proven by Xhaka), and one who along with his culture-shift at Arsenal has stated that he… Read more »
And what does Willian bring?
Not sure how that is relevant to my point ?
Like Socrates, who is actually a decent guy, Ozil doesn’t suit the way the coach/manager intend to play. Socrates is a good defender but cannot pass the ball efficiently, so he is omitted despite his obvious quality as a defender. Ozil on the other hand, can pass the ball a bit but most of the time cannot or don’t care to defend or fight for the ball. Recall the countless times he loose the ball and instead of chasing back, just holds up his hand in the air supposedly out of frustration. The coach/manager wants proper players, and Ozil is… Read more »
Serves him right, his heart hasn’t been in it since shortly after winning the World Cup.
All the talk is of his £350k per week salary but I pretty sure that isn’t his base, i bet he on nearer £250k with a big appearance bonus.
So every game he doesn’t play saves the club up to £100k or to put it another way that money is paying the wages of one of our new signings.
Gets popcorn and waits for the tin hat brigade. Arsenal need to but this to bed now. Pay out his contract and end it, or make him train in the U23s so he is not around the first team every day. They made a mistake under the old administration and we just have to learn from that and move on. Plenty of other teams have made costly gambles. He’s not in the squad because for whatever reason, mentally or physically, Arteta thinks he’s not good enough anymore for what we need. I’m ok with that. Arteta knows more than us.… Read more »
Pretty clear that he has a shit attitude and Arteta wont tolerate it. Wenger babied him and massaged his ego. Emery dropped him and cited his poor attitude. Freddy pubicly spoke about his poor attitude. We need a squad all pulling in the same direction
A few bad apples spoils the lot. Im glad arteta is taking this approach the same with guendouzi.
I dont understand.
I think arteta must have very well told ozil that he will not be registered for PL (or some strong indication that he might not be registered). So question of staying and fighting for a place doesnt arise. Inspite of that ozil chose to stay.. He could have easily gone somewhere (without having to take a paycut) and at least played. Looks like he really wants to chill.
He’s good at PR. The club have bollixed this situation.
He’s bollixed himself far worse tbf
If only his main job wasn’t as as a PR man..,
So which of his senior teammates does he think are more deserving of not being selected than he is?
A self proclaimed activist for humanity and justice, who happens to be best mates with President Erdogan and unquestioningly supports Azerbaijan’s role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Shameless
I just did a bit of fag packet maths and worked out that with the transfer fee and his wages over 8 years he will have cost £150 million. Add agent fees and bonuses (such as the 8 million recent bonus) and other expenses and that will surely be close to 200 million. That is 50% of the price of the entire Emirates stadium. I know that was built a while ago and the cost of Spurs’ stadium perhaps shows that it isn’t a particularly relevant figure anymore, but it is a mind boggling statistic. I was so excited when… Read more »
I’m also disappointed.
Its all very sad. Ozil has his faults..clearly pulling the PR stunt for Gunnersaurus and speaking about Guendouzi leaving the club was silly. But speaking against the Chinese torture of Uighurs is a problem?!! Thats just plain nonsense…every club and premier league as a whole should be asking these questions. Him standing with Erdogan, while Erdogan was in England on a visit invited to the country by the British PM is wrong?! Let me rephrase it..The Turkish President was on a state visit organised by the British Govt. How can then it be wrong for a turkish origin player standing… Read more »
Agreed with the other 2 bullet points, but there is far more to his relationship with Erdogan than just that one photo. Mesut made him best man at his wedding ffs
I think he stood alone regarding the race issue with The German team no other player seemed to have an issue regardless of their heritage
A massive OG by Arsenal. We are bereft of creativity so we deny ourselves this option — at least a Plan B off the bench.
Not a football decision IMHO.
I love Arteta but he’s a willing bag man for upstairs on this one.
Ohh well. I watch football for geniuses like Ozil, not limited athletes who run around a lot.
I would prefer a player with creativity and willing to run around than a diva on the pitch playing for us. So despite our painful lack of creativity, I would rather not see the diva be anywhere around the team…It would be toxic for team spirits and team work ethic….and its not like Ozil have been producing numbers like Ronaldo, Messi or even a De Bruyne to deserve that diva status..Saka probably had more assist and goals than him the last 3 years…. Ozil always seems flatter to deceive….1 good game and 10 average games doesn’t cut it for me… Read more »
here we go again with the “everybody hates Ozil” bullshit. it’s exhausting
I long for the day when “everybody hates Ozil” reflects the truth- that nobody cares about Ozil. Apart from Ozil who is deeply in love with himself.”
I imagine the blame can be placed on both sides, For one Arteta’s system doesn’t require a number 10 pulling the strings and being a defensive liability. In addition i never got the impression that Ozil was willing to play on the wing except for the national team. Its unfortunate but breaking up its for the best i think.
He’s in his thirties. He has a young family. There’s a global pandemic going on which makes it inconvenient to move anywhere. He has his life here and is being paid handsomely to go train a few hours a day. By all accounts, he’s training hard and following the rules (if he wasn’t, you can be sure he’d be fined or they’d have found a way not to pay him the loyalty bonus). I’m sure football has become less of a priority in his life. He’s won a world cup and is in a position not to care what anyone… Read more »
Training hard you mean when he paid the ground staff to skip training?
Mesut Özil vs Arsenal Football Club – Round 65 There are not many facts to go regarding this dispute but we can certainly say it has just been a downward spiral since he left international football. I genuinely would like to know what Sokratis has to say regarding his registration. I know he has had his own off-pitch issues too but he has been really quiet. It got me thinking how the Koscielny situation in 2019 is almost the exact opposite to Özil’s situation. I don’t know why player management at the club has been so chaotic in recent seasons.… Read more »
This is such a waste. We need creativity, and whatever you think of Ozil, he can do that. Maybe he isn’t as prolific, but he could still fulfil a role. The fact that we are paying him 350 grand a week to kick his heels is a ridiculous squandering of funds.
I have not read anywhere that he has been fined for disciplinary reasons, and he obviously is turning up for training, so I would have thought that the club could find some kind of compromise if Mesut was not going to leave.
At a minimum its a massive F up by the club on player management, as Salibaba said above.
Totally dysfunctional by the club.
He can do, but so infrequently has that there comes a point when life just has to move on. What we are seeing is Ozil failing to understand why the sun no longer revolves around him,
Whom do u then de register if not him?
Paying him 350k a week is a massive squandering of funds whether he made the cut or not. He is finished as a player. He offers literally nothing on the pitch.
Can’t blame Edu, Vinai or Mikel though, this is a shit sandwich they inherited. The only person with the power to do anything about the situation is Ozil himself, bit he didn’t want to know, as he loves us fans and Arsenal soooo much, lol….hey you guys
Whether you like him or loathe him I haven’t heard anyone say his omission from the PL squad (not team) has improved our chances of a Top 6 finish let alone Top 4. And isn’t that what it should all be about? Obviously not a football decision so let’s hope it’s the right one – we should know by Christmas.
Do you really think we would have won the FA cup last year with him in the team, drifting around doing very little?
What has it done to diminish the chances? Wishing for a 2013 Ozil doesn’t alter the fact that you get 2020 Ozil.
He will not improve our chances, he will instead destroy the team work ethics on the pitch and team spirit…bergkamp, cesc, rosicky, cazorla were flair players, but even they work for the team. Ozil wants to have the ball but dont want to get the ball.
He professes his love for the club blah blah blah, but putting this statement out in the public domain does not help Arsenal in any shape or form. My personal take on it is it shows a real lack of class, respect or professionalism, even if the club hierarchy are at fault too Ozil should just stay quiet and by all means when its over and he leaves Arsenal he can air his dirty laundry then.