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The Peculiar Case of Ozil


By Younghansolo
October 9 2020

Since arriving at the club in 2013 (yes it really was that long ago,) Mesut Özil has been something of an enigma. For every sublime moment such as his goal against Ludogorets, there are a multitude of moments where he looks and acts completely disinterested.

In late 2020, Mesut now finds himself in a very unusual position of being surplus to requirements at the age of 31. Just yesterday it was revealed he is not to be named in Arsenal’s European squad and at £350,000 per week, that would appear odd on the surface.

 

However, I think it’s actually quite sensible from the Manager and I’ll explain why.

 

To understand this, we have to go back to 2018 when Arsenal offered the German playmaker his new deal. Most fans knew at the time that we couldn’t afford to lose him. We accepted that he was capable of incredible moments even if they were inconsistent. His best season had come in 2015/2016 and if he could replicate that form then Arsenal would be reimbursed. That was the thinking. Of course, the transfer of Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United also added to the situation’s dilemma.

 

It didn’t take long though for people to throw the salary in Özil’s face, repeatedly (as is perhaps natural when it’s such a large amount.) It’s also hard to talk about this period without at least mention the very public falling out with the German national side with his political alliances to Turkey. Something, that certainly seemed to impact the player if you go by his very public comments at the time.

 

Fast forward to 2019/2020 and Özil found himself at odds with then manager Unai Emery and all but frozen out of the club. Something fans still couldn’t quite understand. Did he not care? Was the money all he wanted? Was his newfound love of gaming taking over his career? Or was it just bad management?

 

When the new manager, Mikel Arteta arrived he promised everyone (including Özil) a fresh start and very quickly, he found himself starting and generally playing well for a winning side again; he even found his scoring touch.

 

And then after lockdown it all went wrong again.

 

And only now is the truth beginning to emerge. Despite Özil’s very public displays of affection for Arsenal and his continued assertion that he is giving his all; the truth is far from that.

 

Mikel Arteta has a set of very clear rules that all players must adhere to. Things that Ozil doesn’t seem to agree with and thus finds himself deemed surplus to requirements.

 

One of these rules is regularly attending Zoom calls (A well known Arsenal Blog suggests that Ozil has not been attending all of these sessions) where Arteta and senior players discuss tactics and update on strategies and learnings etc. Another is video “homework” and preparation for each game.

 

Despite his assertion that he is doing everything to be fit, Mesut Özil, to my understanding, has not engaged with these sessions frequently and is seen to be disinterested in this approach. Naturally then, the manager can’t allow exceptions.

 

But other behaviours are fuelling this behaviour. Perhaps it’s the heartache of being cast out by the Country you dedicated your career to and helped win a World cup for. Or perhaps it’s bad advice from those close to him. Those same people who told him his “M10” brand was a better investment than continuing to be a key figure with Adidas. Those same people who also advised him not to take a pay cut to support club staff, but to publicly try to shame the club by offering to pay for their mascot instead (It should be pointed out that the club failed to protect staff and made redundancies. Editor).

 

Overall, it’s clear to me this situation is currently beyond repair. But it’s absolutely in the player’s court and to me at least, the manager is categorically doing the right thing. It’s just a shame Özil didn’t have the pride to accept less money, or to leave this summer.

 

 

 

 

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The Peculiar Case of Ozil
Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 09/10/2020 18:18
Arsenal Times
09/10/2020 18:18
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020:10:16:23:11:28 by Padre Pio.

Boston Gooner
09/10/2020 19:24
Ozil doesn't give a monkey's about Arsenal.
If he had anything about him he would move on.
He could easily get a big deal abroad.
He could accept a pay off from the club.

But the outcome will be he will probably sit it out.
Taking the weekly money
Taking a wanted space up.

YHS ๐Ÿ‘

โ€œ ๐“ฅ๐“ฒ๐“ฌ๐“ฝ๐“ธ๐“ป๐”‚ ๐“–๐“ป๐“ธ๐”€๐“ผ ๐“ฃ๐“ฑ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“พ๐“ฐ๐“ฑ ๐“—๐“ช๐“ป๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ท๐”‚ โ€



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020:10:10:21:10:03 by Boston Gooner.

Merlion96
10/10/2020 00:21
I didn't see that.
Good job YHS! thumbs down

"The idea is to be more unpredictable every year and be more difficult for the opponents to stop and nullify what we want to do. Thatโ€™s what we have now, especially at the back and in the midfield the options we have, to open up the spaces, we have many more options than we had last year.โ€ Mikel Arteta

Willy
10/10/2020 15:23
As an Ozil optimist I canโ€™t defend him for not doing whatโ€™s asked of him and his team mates if this is true. There certainly must be something like this going on as his on-field contribution wasnโ€™t falling off a cliff when he was playing. The waste of money is physically sickening

Flava
10/10/2020 19:49
Ozil and Arsenal are at war. Arsenal make the Gunnersaurus temporarily redundant and Ozil offers to subsidise his ยฃ30k a year salary. His social media team are elite. Arsenal get all the bad press (and rightly so) and Ozil looks like a hero. The optics aren't good for Arsenal on this one.

Anyone can get back into Arteta's good books, Xhaka has had an amazing turnaround as have AMN and Ceballos. So much so the latter has been brought back for a second season.

He's gone from being my favourite player, he was so good, to being a player I can't bare to see.

Good piece YHS,

weedz
10/10/2020 21:34
Good work YHS.
The most disappointing part of all this, for me, is how weโ€™ve lost the creativity that a player of MOs ability should have been supplying to our effort.
I believe that itโ€™s mainly Ozils fault because it was not just one manager who he has fought against, and remember him being taken off and saying that Emery canโ€™t coach, but now Arteta as well.
I could of accepted that there was a personality feud between MO and Emery, but when Emery was sacked, MOs attitude didnโ€™t change.
It now feels like MO has a personality feud with Arsenal fc, although he continually states that he loves our club.
Actions speak louder the words.

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, thereโ€™s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Letโ€™s keep making history

Jonny Bravo
11/10/2020 00:05
There is no doubt there is a war going on between Team Ozil and the club on many fronts, playing time, wages, PR and so on. I say Team Ozil, because to my mind a lot of the framing and cultivating of Ozil's image comes from the people advising him, rather than been driven solely by Ozil himself.

Lets remember both Mourinho and Wenger had to treat him with kid gloves in their attempts to coax the best out of him, he was commonly referred to as the teacher's pet at Arsenal by his teammates due to him receiving special treatment. His temperament has been questioned as well, being that of a delicate disposition, not taking criticism well and having a bit of a persecution complex.

It would appear he has surrounded himself with people to protect him and his image, however whether these parties have his best interests as a footballer at heart, or rather are more intent on cultivating his brand for life after football is the biggest question.

It's a sorry state of affairs really, not just for the club but for Ozil himself. From the outside he seems to have fallen out of love with the game, probably in no small part to litany of bust-ups over the last few years. From his war with, and subsequent departure from the German National Team, his constant ongoing battles with Arsenal, especially under Emery, who tried and failed to marginalize him, to Arteta who gave him every chance to prove himself and ultimately had the authority to finally sideline him.

Whether he cares about his real football legacy, or is more concerned with his perceived legacy among the cult of his personality which his PR team has carefully cultivated on twitter, we will never really know. What we do know is this saga will continue to play out until he leaves, whether that is by way of a payoff or hes contract running down until the end. Either way Ozil will be the winner both financially and from a PR point of view.

Ultimately, with the benefit of hindsight, he was the wrong player, at the wrong time. We wanted a marquee striker 2013 when we were finally beginning to exercise our financial muscles, we went from Higuain to Suarez but ended up with Ozil. We needed somebody to drag the team along with him, to replace what we lost in Fabregas and RvP to a lesser extent, to be the main man and take responsibility for the direction of the team.

Ozil was never that kind of player, then or now, he was always much more comfortable being part of the supporting cast, enabling the likes of Ronaldo at Madrid to do his thing. His partnership with Sanchez was the closest he ever got to that here, and that in itself was all too fleeting. We compounded the botched sale of Sanchez by awarding Ozil a new contract, and for those errors of judgement the club also has to take responsibility.

The best thing for all parties now would be for a payoff, let the club, Ozil and most importantly the fans move so we can draw a line under the whole sorry mess and give out about something else for a change.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020:10:11:00:34:54 by Jonny Bravo.

TheReMarkable
11/10/2020 23:28
Good piece and great post too Jonny B. Agree with a lot of that. One thing that always irks me is the 350k stuff. Iโ€™d love to know how much heโ€™s actually taking home a week while not playing? Thereโ€™s Noway itโ€™s 350. That would be made up of appearance, 90 min, assist etc etc itโ€™s most likely 350 is his on target earning per week.

Boston Gooner
11/10/2020 23:57
Quote:
TheReMarkable
Good piece and great post too Jonny B. Agree with a lot of that. One thing that always irks me is the 350k stuff. Iโ€™d love to know how much heโ€™s actually taking home a week while not playing? Thereโ€™s Noway itโ€™s 350. That would be made up of appearance, 90 min, assist etc etc itโ€™s most likely 350 is his on target earning per week.

Whatever it is it's to much.

โ€œ ๐“ฅ๐“ฒ๐“ฌ๐“ฝ๐“ธ๐“ป๐”‚ ๐“–๐“ป๐“ธ๐”€๐“ผ ๐“ฃ๐“ฑ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“พ๐“ฐ๐“ฑ ๐“—๐“ช๐“ป๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ท๐”‚ โ€

Padre Pio
12/10/2020 12:41
Ornstein in the Athletic today suggests the club is saving money on Ozil. He claims the club had to pay him ยฃ8million loyalty bonus this September!!
It was contractual!
Therefore he suggests that the club is saving on match day bonuses and games played.
He doesnโ€™t say what these match day costs are, but it would appear the club prefer not to pay them rather than use him.

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Boston Gooner
12/10/2020 13:51
loyalty (Sm22)

โ€œ ๐“ฅ๐“ฒ๐“ฌ๐“ฝ๐“ธ๐“ป๐”‚ ๐“–๐“ป๐“ธ๐”€๐“ผ ๐“ฃ๐“ฑ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“พ๐“ฐ๐“ฑ ๐“—๐“ช๐“ป๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ท๐”‚ โ€

Willy
13/10/2020 12:27
Quote:
Padre Pio
Ornstein in the Athletic today suggests the club is saving money on Ozil. He claims the club had to pay him ยฃ8million loyalty bonus this September!!
It was contractual!
Therefore he suggests that the club is saving on match day bonuses and games played.
He doesnโ€™t say what these match day costs are, but it would appear the club prefer not to pay them rather than use him.

8 mill? Insane negotiations. What Arsene says in this piece says a lot about how he managed Ozil and seemed to pay him probably too much respect:

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Seems like Ozil was happy to take the step down from Real on the condition that he would be treated as a very special player. And to be fair it probably worked OK under Wenger overall but what a poisoned chalice to pass on to Emery with him on that contract and with that attitude.

mapleleafgooner
13/10/2020 14:25
Quote:
Willy
............
Seems like Ozil was happy to take the step down from Real on the condition that he would be treated as a very special player. And to be fair it probably worked OK under Wenger overall but what a poisoned chalice to pass on to Emery with him on that contract and with that attitude.

A few years ago, Ramsey was interviewed and he hinted that Wenger does give more leeway to Ozil than to any other player. And in a recent interview, Wenger did say that Ozil is a special talent and needs to be treated as such. But I don't think Arteta will do so as he sees the team to be bigger than just one player.

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