Mesut Ozil’s long-term contract may have left the midfielder in a ‘comfort zone’, according to former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.
Ozil was tipped to leave the Gunners but he made a U-turn and signed a long-term contract last year ended the speculations about his future. Since the arrival of Unai Emery, Ozil has fallen out of favour with the new boss having started just one game since Boxing Day.
“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.
“He has a contract but the problem is that if you want to buy a player like him you have to spend £100million. And to maintain the value of the player, beyond the Ozil case, it is more about the way football is structured.”
“To buy players of top, top quality you need £100million. 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?”
