This is a question we have all been asking ourselves: what to do with MO11? Our most expensive player ever is less than a bench-warmer these days and seemingly lacks the desire and or flexibility to adjust to Mikel’s style of play and help him bring Arsenal back to where it belongs. Where do you stand on this?
Regular BKer Allezkev had this to say:
I see that Dr Sogut has reiterated his overused tweet regarding Mesut Ozil seeing out his contract at Arsenal and tbh that’s fine by me, although I did read that Ozil’s wife wasn’t very happy about her husband turning down a move to Fenerbahce.
I don’t know about anyone else but I suspect that Dr Sogut would love to see Arsenal come up with a financial package that would pretty much pay off Mesut’s contract and of course pay the good Doctor a nice bit of commission to help the deal through.
That would free up Ozil to join a Turkish club of his choice and allow his profile to rise so that he could make a lot more dough through sponsorships.
Financially Arsenal would not benefit at all in fact it could cost them even more with the only positive being that Ozil would be out of the club.
Of course, the alternative could be that Arsenal play hard ball as the club did over Mkhitaryan when the Armenians Agent was angling for a bit of commission and a pay off for his player.
Therefore, if Ozil says he doesn’t want to leave we should simply hold him to that, it’s still gonna cost Arsenal and of course it’s going to encourage unimaginative journalists to ask the same unimaginative questions about him, but Arteta can deal with that whilst the profile of the player falls away affecting his earning capacity whilst he doesn’t play and with the added bonus that his agent gets no more dough from the club. It’ll be barely 11 months, it’ll soon go by and Arteta could actually play him in the League Cup.
Some folks might find that pedantic and it is to a degree but it would also show that Arsenal aren’t going to be a doormat anymore…
I fully agree with Kev on this one as a matter of principle. However, Ozil will become 32 in October and surely another year away from the pitch will do the final part of his career much harm; and unless he really makes an enormous U-turn, we really don’t want him anywhere near the squad. So selling him or indeed loaning him out would be best for all parties imo.
It is of course banal that we lack a top quality creative midfielder and Mesut is just that…
By Allezkev and TotalArsenal.
Bergkampesque 
Hey Kev, thanks for recent comments. I understood why Ozil was unhappy with Emery, but I cannot imagine Arteta being unreasonable with Ozil at all. It looks like he has no flexibility or desire to adapt, and if this is the case I am very disappointed in him.
Re Mustaffi, I agree that he has improved under Arteta and that we will miss him on Saturday. Despite his occasional blips he is the sort of modern CB Arteta really loves.
Why was Arteta making him a central point of the team then, with Ozil responding well just before the lockdown?? Everyone’s forgotten really quickly about all that …..
For me, I wonder if its as likely that higher up have said to freeze him out after the pay cut negotiations stalled and maybe Ozil had other ideas about playing during a pandemic, hmmmm….
Before we get to Ozil– let’s discuss #20.
More than his on/off disposition– is the value that Kev mentioned. Per Transfermarkt– his value had plummeted from around £22M in December to approx £13M at present. Not sure how much value there is to protect in a depressed transfer market. Fairly sure no one is going to take on his wages (£90k wk) either. Probably best to let him play it down. Arsenal either get value from his play– or don’t.
Then, Arteta (and Raul, Edu) have to consider an October return from injury at earliest. Two months into the season– I’d hope we will have already decided who will be our top 3 CBs who get the bulk of the matches. #20 likely isn’t going to walk back into the first XI.
I’ve beaten him up when he deserved a beating.
I’ve tempered my views when he’s been acceptable.
Would prefer Arsenal not expend any more resources keeping him.
jw1
I love seeing ozil playing for the team,he is very creative and talented.arteta can play cebalos or willock and bench ozil, very unfortunate and unbelievable.
Morning Total and ya’ll…
Loaning Ozil out and picking up a slab of his wages is probably the best way to go Total, I agree with you there, I just wonder about Dr Sogut and how much he would try to extract to get a deal like that through, there’s always a price to pay and maybe principal comes into the mix from Arsenal’s side.
It’s why I compared the Mesut situation to Mkhitaryans because in the end Micky pushed for the deal because he didn’t want to return to London, even though I’m sure that his agent was holding out for some form of kickback.
I’m personally quite happy to see him finish up his contract stuck in our sickbay with his ‘chronic’ bad back as it’ll damage his profile and cost him a lot of sponsorship monies. I’m also sure that there are personages at our club who were not very impressed when Mesut refused to take a pay cut, as was his right, as it showed a lack of unity with his new manager and team mates.
Mesut is a man with strong views on many things, China for example, but there’s a way of going about things and I’m not sure that he or his agent have handled things as well as they could have.
Agreed Kev, he stands to lose financially and reputationally with another season on PlayStation in London. What sort of man would choose this? He risks becoming a paria in society when he has so much to offer both on and off the pitch.
Good point about the wage cut too.
Personally I’d not be vindictive against Ozil, as it wasn’t him who agreed his wage and he’s entitled to be paid that rather than have underhanded measures to try and force him out of the contract.
I rather watch football and Arsenal though for skill and talent and don’t get bogged down in all the other stuff off the pitch. I get it though that other supporters begin hating someone cos they don’t appear to go full clout for ‘effort’ in defence – maybe it’s how most people in Britain are actually use to playing at their level of all blood and guts, whilst lacking any kind of technical ability :-]
The joy I’ve derived from watching Ozil’s deft touches, flicks and grace is enough to remember him well by. Arteta will also know how good a footballer he really is from having played together and seeing the amount of chances created, both then and even now. It looked at first as if he was extracting that out of him again too, so in my view it’s a shame that didn’t continue as Arsenal could certainly do with more creativity (maybe Auba would then have also got the golden boot for another year……)
5am I love technical ability, but technical ability alone will only take you so far, do you think for example that David Silva ‘goes through the motions’ or Rahim Sterling, they combine skill and hard work, it’s the reason why Pep Guardiola wouldn’t touch Mesut with a barge pole.
Also making snide remarks about British football fans only shows up perhaps your own prejudice, but hey I’ll give you a pass on that one.
I guess at the end of the day it comes down to whether you see yourself as an Arsenal fan or an Ozil fan, if you’re an Ozil fan then good luck to you and I hope you enjoy following Mesut throughout the rest of his career, for me I only want to see what is best for my club and I happen to think it’ll be beneficial for my club when Ozil has left.
Interesting choice of posts, TA… (And sorry for the diatribe below, Kev, but, at some point I think you claimed that enjoyed my, er, different perspectives…)
With a cup final in just a few days, I would have thought that’s where our attention might be directed. Instead, somehow, I guess, it’s better to side with the (Arsenal) money men and slag off a player for earning too much. Ozil (and his agent…) want Arsenal to honor (or is it honour?…) the contract they signed, so it (somehow…) becomes important that those Kroenkes (and their upper managers) make Mesut “pay” for his “under-performance” (or injury or whatever it is). Ozil is just as bad as those folks in the unemployment lines, collecting their benefits and failing (utterly failing…) to do their work… AND, he even balked at taking a “pandemic” pay-cut. The nerve. How would you feel if you were Stan Kroenke and saw that your fortune was dipping below $10 billion (as it did in back in March)?…
(Are we truly THAT in love with the Kroenkes? Don’t forget that some of that 12.5% he was able to reclaim from Arsenal salaries will be going to keep those Trump reelection ads on the air/internet… Y’all over there are missing out. It’s some wonderful content…Keeping America’s cities safe and the statues of the heroes who tried to start that other country and keep those slaves a-workin’ on their pedestals…by sending in storm troopers…Good times…)
5am (new comment guy? Welcome to the blog!!) is right. Arteta was incorporating Ozil back into the squad nicely before the shutdown (much as he was rehabilitating other pariahs–like with Skhodran and Xhaka, there’s an h in there, at least the way we spell it, TA). So, maybe Mesut is (actually) injured. More likely there IS a deal in the offing (to the US or maybe an Istanbul team–or maybe just elsewhere on a solid continental team that could use a guy like Ozil) and the money men (Raul Sanllehi, et. al.,) don’t want to complicate matters with a potential injury so THEY told Arteta that he’s not available (for playing). (It’s ugly, but folks, I believe, need to know that–under current ownership–Arsenal’s bottom line is more important than results on the pitch.) It’s not the worst for Mikel because the FA Cup has been his main priority and that’s where conservative tactics–playing to avoid conceding goals, nicking them on the break, etc., etc–works fine without a creative attack oriented MF like Ozil. So what if we look like crap against the lesser teams? And, guess what, we’re in the final…even if BKesque, at least if the choice of comments raised into posts is an indicator, doesn’t seem to care…
Which actually leads me to the comment of allezkev (last post) which I thought was interesting (and might be fleshed out and made into a worthy post topic). It was about tactics (and other on-pitch ideas) and not being able to take much from the Watford match in terms of how (and whom) we might play in the cup final on Saturday. As somebody who (actually…) believes it’s important to watch the matches, I was looking for clues in that one (the 3-2 win on the final day which sent the Hornets down) ahead of the final. Who cares, I guess… (And, in truth, I think Kev might’ve had some wisdom about just getting through that game with no injuries…)
But, like I say, who cares? As long as “WE” (the fans–not supporters–there’s a difference, I believe… ) who feel soooo put out (I guess because it’s us who pay the–scandalously high–wages of effete players like Ozil, with our season tickets or TV/streaming packages…) get to make “THEM” (our enemies, those same coddled, overpaid players) suffer for (so obviously…) not giving their all to the cause…
Which is what, exactly?…
Winning football matches?…
Nah, that can’t be it… Or else we’d (actually) be talking about them…
Still, if we can win the cup final we get back into the Europa League and that will net at least a few million quid (from the extra games next season no matter how poor they might be). That’s a positive, right? I’m just hopeful that (Stan’s guy) the Donald is right and this pandemic (just… magically…) disappears (along with all those pesky environmental and worker protections…) and the economy roars again so that Stan gets back over that $10 Billion line (sooner than later)… Once that’s achieved (surely…) he’ll give that sigh of relief and be inspired to buy Arsenal lots (and lots…) of other fine players here in the transfer market so that we can ascend to further glories… Or if “they” (the expensive players, because, in addition to the big fees, we might also offer them decent contracts…) let “us” down, “we” can (find new ways to) blame “them” for our unhappiness…
So the circle goes on and on…
Cup final on Saturday…As awful as it is watching “them” (our players, “the Arsenal” some folks call them) in the matches…it beats having to look (at ourselves?…) in the mirror…
😦 ( 😦 😦 )
You can write from Lake Tahoe to Tokyo via Tehran, but it will not change an honest supporter’s point of view that Ozil’s attitude stinks and that he has been a huge disappointment over the last few years. BTW, which capitalist owner would not want their investment to shine on the pitch?
Welcome 5am, good comments even though I don’t agree with everything.
I’m a pretty quiet blogger these days for a number of reasons , but Ozil has been crippling arsenal financially for far too long now. Too many times he has remained anonymous on the pitch, delivering little. then he plays one or two half decent games and lots of people go crazy fo him, only for him to revert to being ‘injured again’ I am all for players being protected by contracts, but he must be pretty close to breaching the terms of his.
David Luiz is a pretty good example of the opposite. Not my favourite player, but what great attitude. When he was sent off the other week, everyone said that was him finished, but he stood up took the blame and played an excellent game the next game. Mustaphi in a similar vein, so full of errors before but he has knuckled down under Arteta and will be missed in the final.
great post Kev
Hey Retsubster, good to see you here again. How are feeling about the final on Saturday?
Re Arteta given Ozil a chance before the lock down and not after we can only speculate. The thought that Arteta was instructed to sideline him is one I find quite rediculous. The same was said when Emery was in charge after all.
It is much more likely that Ozil did not cooperate with Arteta’s way of preparing and playing the game, and he got sidelined. Instead of fighting his way back into the team he opted to do the opposite. Knowing Arteta a bit now I think he is the reasonable guy. So it most likely that Ozil has been an arse with a small ‘a’.
You’ve been a fine host TA.
But I’ve felt lately that it really matters little if I try to contribute here.
Steve– I sent you an email. Don’t know if you’ve read it.
So long. And thanks for all the fish.
jw1
Jw1, your views and contributions are very much appreciated here. Sorry to hear you don’t feel that right now, but come back soon. And I wish you a lot of strength with dealing with the recent losses of your dear ones.
Hey 17tino, yes I always enjoy your contributions mio amigo just as I also enjoy JW’s, debate is a wonderful thing as it keeps the old grey matter ticking over. It does worry me that debate and freedom of expression are very much in danger in many of the universities of the English speaking world and that an extremist point of view pervades everything. I’m not sure if that’s a healthy development because it usually leads to extremist politicians from all persuasions and I fear that’s very much the case these days.
Interestingly I’ve just finished watching Ken Burns excellent documentary on the American Civil War again and I have to say that the subject was dealt with sensitively and with respect, well researched and written, but it is 30 years old and I do wonder how it would be made by today’s documentary makers?
Hi Retsub, I hope you are well, how are you dealing with the lockdown?
Hey T A. To be honest I am surprised we made the final. When the draw For the semis was made I was saying “anyone but City”. But we beat Liverpool in the league (albeit with a good chunk of luck) and we deservedly beat City. I Really like Arteta And he has made a big difference. Player for player I think Chelsea have more flair players and one or two cynical ones as well. If Arteta boxes clever and neutralises some key Chelsea players I think we have a good chance.
Agreed Retsub, that win v MC was massive and rightly put us in the final. In our previous FA Cup wins we have beaten the best teams in the process and the same goes for this year. The win at SU was also a big achievement. This is a massive game for Luiz and Holding and if they can stay on the pitch whilst giving everything and Xhaka and Ceballos give hem the right protection, we have a good chance. It should a hell of a final! CoyGs
Hey Kev. Bored out of my tiny mind most of the time. I treated myself to a new car and I have been a glutton watching football for the past few weeks. I also have a number of elderly relatives so have been trying to help them out here possible.
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Thought I would mention that a saw a film, called Marvellous the other day maybe on Netflix or Amazon Prime. If anyone hasn’t seen it, it’s an excellent film and very enjoyable. I would thougherly recommend it.
Wow, 17high… powerful commentary there! Thanks for the welcome Total
Allezkev, first off, apologies if a bit below the belt over my comments of when at times some supporters have diatribe – no offence intended.
I’ve long had Arsenal as my team though, quite timely, as started in the season before the 1979 FA Cup Final, where back then Brady was the personal hero. I assure you that after he left, I didn’t then all of a sudden become a Juve fan :-]
If the manager had ever left Brady out of a game though where we needed a bit more guile, I’d have been asking the same questions why…. that’s not to say that I’d be right when appearing to stick up for a player but just proffering a view..
So someone by that shouldn’t be made to feel that going against the grain is then maybe choosing a player over the club. I see players as ‘part of’ the club , where although in this case I’ve no idea what’s truly going on behind the scenes. So I try to stick to what I see on the pitch. That means in a game like against Villa, when trying to break down a low block and we’ve not even got the ‘most chances’ created player on the bench to offer something, it’s somewhat frustrating to say the least. Especially that had we won that match and looking at the results on the last day, I think it would’ve allowed us to pip Sp*rs (my math isn’t great, so maybe it’d have to have been up to GD as well) – another big important thing to the fans though….
Other players in the past who’ve taken stick for lack of defensive ability was Pires and yet even the invincibles could still afford to have a player of his ilk. Aside from the times when fans were groaning about his effort, he could still light up the stadium to marvellous things – still remember the two he scored against Villa again on the final win of the 49!
Cheers 5am, I guess Arteta knows he is missing a creative spark in the team – his Kevin de Bruine or Silva if you like – and yet Ozil does not get a look at anymore. This must mean something is seriously wrong and it does not look good for Mesut.
I will check it out, Retsub.
The game has moved on a lot since Robert Pires strutted his stuff and I dont see many teams who still carry a Pires or Ozil. We all like the moments of magic but Arteta is probably looking at these coming from anywhere within the team rather than the one specialist.
T A it’s on the BBC I. Player but it expire tomorrow. It was actually made in 2014 and does involve Stoke!!!
Cheers Retsub.
New Post New Post 🙂
Yeh, TA – agree about football strategy changing, where certain types of #10 are now surplus to requirements. Wonder if that might go full circle though, depending on counter formations being needed in different scenarios….
But from what I was saying though, Arteta did make Ozil the focal point at the start, with an impact ie providing the assist for Laca during his last match pre lockdown. So it does seem that more’s going on here than just footballing reasons and I’d hate to think that it’s higher up actually instructing Arteta not to play him. As in, why limit your new manager before they even have a chance to go into the full transfer market to then be better placed to replace whichever individuals they want.
For now the sagas continues, which all round isn’t great……
This is coming late, I know, but I promised myself I must say my piece (started before the ‘new post’ notification, as I had many distractions) on the subject of Ozil and what to do with one of the biggest names to grace our club, in recent times. Now, there is a lot that may be going on behind the scenes about which we, very likely, have no inkling, but the situation needs fixing, difficult as it may be.
Let me say that unlike some, I really do not think Ozil has been delivering for the club the past 2/3 years now. His reputation as an “assist” king has waned and he has hardly gone beyond 10 assists a year, for some time now (agree, it may be due to the gradual drop in quality of our front men like Alexis, Ramsey…), so, for me, he won’t be (hasn’t been) a big miss if we can arrange his exit. Don’t get me wrong; I love Ozil and him around our club but if a manager like Arteta, who was a team mate with high regard for Ozil’s quality, cannot live with his attitude, I’d vote for the club on this one. It is curious, I will admit, that Arteta seemed to have given Ozil a role and even improved his work rate, pre-pandemic. So, my reading is that something broke during the break and it may have to do with the pay-cut negotiations and Ozil’s adamant stance on ‘taking one’ for the club.
While he is within his rights, that’s not a stance that elicits trust of the manager and team mates. That kind of attitude is counter-productive when you are trying to build (a) team spirit. That is why we must reach an agreement to see him off: Loan deal, with Arsenal bearing a part of his wages looks the best bet because I don’t see Mesut Ozil walking, on his own; he is a man with strong views on issues and one you shouldn’t look to cross paths with, harmless as he looks.
Now, let me take on the New Post.
Thanks 5am, let us indeed say… TBC..
Erismus, you summed it up to a T. And I also liked your tone and style. Thank you.