It did not take long for new Arsenal boss Unai Emery to determine which side of the great Mesut Ozil debate he came down on.
Of all the problems he inherited, it is perhaps the presence of Ozil causing him the greatest headache. Emery, it would appear, would rather the German just went away.
But how has it come to this, less than one year on from the club championing the playmaker’s new contract.
It was on January 31 of last year that Ozil became the highest paid player in the club’s history after signing a £350,000-per-week package until the summer of 2021.
With Ozil’s deal expiring and Alexis Sanchez having already defected to Manchester United, this was seen as a victory for Arsene Wenger. At least, that is, by Wenger himself. He had indulged a comfort blanket but merely succeeded in smothering the potential for progress of a club he was about to depart.
Now, as we approach the one-year anniversary of Ozil’s bumper pay day, he isn’t even in the matchday squad.
At the weekend, he was pictured in a hookah lounge in Istanbul. Meanwhile, Arsenal were losing 1-0 at West Ham, their third defeat in six in the Premier League leaving them six points adrift of the top four.
As is ever the case when a team loses without a certain player, their stock rises. Ozil, suddenly, is the answer in the eyes of some.
Ian Wright on Mesut Ozil: “It’s really worrying, I know Unai Emery has had his problems with big players in the dressing room before and it seems like Ozil in this dressing room is the one he’s taking it out on”. pic.twitter.com/hTQhc6TiZp
— Squawka News (@SquawkaNews) January 14, 2019
Not Emery. He wants the World Cup winner out before the end of the month in a bid to bring in Denis Suarez from Barcelona.
But where would he go? Ozil will not, you assume, forgo a penny of the staggering £45million that remains on his contract, meaning Arsenal will either have to pay him up, cover a percentage of that figure until 2021 or allow him to see out the deal in the shadows, at least as long as Emery is around. China, of course, is the get-out.
No matter what … put in the work ?? #M1Ö #YaGunnersYa @Arsenal pic.twitter.com/deLxWVaUlt
— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) January 14, 2019
For quite frankly, Ozil was never worth the wage which was sanctioned as a show of strength to those rival clubs who fancied taking him for free. The deal has very quickly become a major source of weakness.
There have been calls for Ozil to leave in order to free up Arsenal’s financial predicament +7
There have been calls for Ozil to leave in order to free up Arsenal’s financial predicament
At 30, and with a lot of miles on the clock – 518 club appearances – his best days are certainly behind him.
Even a fully motivated Ozil can wear a look of indifference, so the chances of him returning to spark new energy into Arsenal’s season are close to zero given knowledge of his manager’s opinion of him.
And that has always been Ozil’s problem. The best players do it week in, week out, regardless of any circumstance external to them.
For Ozil, the setting has to be just right. His poor record against the top clubs, for example, was always a point of argument for his detractors.
Now, however, Emery will not even trust him at home to Fulham. There have been several reports of fallouts but even those have petered out in recent weeks, for it seems the boss has simply given up on him.