Former Arsenal star Charlie Nicholas predicts Unai Emery would be willing to sell Mesut Ozil in January if the club receives an attractive offer.
The Germany World Cup winner made an inauspicious start to life under Arsene Wenger’s successor Unai Emery, hauled off in the defeat against Chelsea and missing the recent win over West Ham through illness.
Emery was forced to deny reports of a training ground bust-up with the former Real Madrid playmaker but has publically demanded more from the club’s top earner who signed a new £350,000-a-week contract in February.
Ozil has responded this week with goals in successive matches but Nicholas remains unconvinced he is totally committed to Emery’s project.
‘I don’t know financially how they could do it, (perhaps) some of the Chinese money that has been floating about. ‘There will be teams that are interested and I’ll tell you how it will end up working. ‘It wouldn’t be a salary thing, it would be a big chunk of money that he would get and that would nurse the bruising that his salary would have to drop a bit. ‘But the thing is, is he really that committed to it? ‘I think we are starting to identify that the new manager, it’s taken him quite a bit of time, is getting on fine with him, but he will be saying ‘if you’re not playing well, you’ll be out the team’, and he will not accept that Ozil.’