Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger speculated giving Mesut Ozil a new contract may have left the playmaker in a comfort zone and not at
Ozil signed a new contract just over a year ago with just six months remaining on his previous deal with the Gunners. Faced with the prospect of losing Ozil for nothing, the club elected to give him a
While that happened with Wenger at the helm with the belief the German would be one of
And Wenger, who was speaking after receiving a Lifetime
“I feel that the length of the contract has nothing to do normally with the selection of the team, But sometimes there are special cases. Most of the time now we think when we sign a player for five years we have a good player for five years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they practice, they play their best. Because they might be in their comfort zone,” said Wenger.
However, Wenger also noted the difficult situation the club was in, saying that they faced the choice of paying a large fee and contract for a replacement or simply re-signing a player already on their team.
“He has a contract but the problem is that if you want to buy a player like him you have to spend £100 million,” Wenger added. “And to maintain the value of the player, beyond the Özil case, it is more about the way football is structured. To buy players of Achievement honour top, top quality you need £100m. So the decision you have to make is whether you re-sign the player, who costs us nothing, or do we have the money to buy a new player?”