Martin Keown has claimed that he told Unai Emery to cut ties with Mesut Ozil previously, and advise new Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta to do the same.
The German midfielder is yet to feature since the Premier League resumed last week, despite playing twice already.
Ozil’s future is now being questioned once again, with him previously being labelled as lazy, and former Arsenal defender Keown now claims that he has been telling managers to offload the former Real Madrid star for two years.
“The Ozil situation when Emery took the job, I felt at that time the best thing he could have done is to take Ozil away and sell him at that point,” former Gunners defender Keown told talkSPORT.
“In fact, I advised him to do that at the time.
“What we have seen with Ozil – for one reason or another, and everyone feels you’re picking on him – he’s a player that isn’t part of the future at Arsenal.
“They need to cut their losses and let Ozil go, otherwise the other players see the bad habits that he may have.
“I’m assuming he hasn’t trained well enough and really given it everything, and the manager now doesn’t want to invest any more time in him.
“But when you have someone around the edges of a football club like that, with all of those impressionable young men, it’s time for change.
“Arteta is part of that change and part of that new freshness, but if you don’t make the right decisions then you are no longer a part of that, you are a part of the past.”
The Spanish boss has previously insisted that players must show their intention to play on the training ground when telling Arsenal FC why Ainsley Maitland-Niles had found himself out of favour, and it wouldn’t be a shock to hear that this reasoning was used for Ozil’s exclusion either.
Is Ozil still a key player for Arsenal? Will he need to show more in training to get back into the manager’s plans?
Patrick
So stupid he IS our best player
Ozil should have been got rid of ages ago, he’s become lazy and thinks why should I put in any effort in training or when playing, cos I’ll still get my £350k per week. He needs to be sold, but what club would be willing to pay or be able to afford his £350k per week wage which works out at £18m plus per year.
Very easy for the likes of Keown to suggest we “cut our losses ” on Ozil, but in practical terms how exactly do we achieve this.Does he suggest we offer to pay out Ozil’s contract to get him out the door, if so how much would be involved to encourage him to leave.Like it or not the ball is very much in the player’s court and we are basically stuck with him until his contract expires at the end of next season The contract awarded to Ozil was obscene and a massive example of business incompetence.Sad to say we do not appear to have learned our lesson as witnessed by the contracts awarded to Luis and Soares.When will we ever learn.
Ozil is our most senior player who when he isn’t picked, Arsenal are more often than not the losing side.
Is this a coincidence or is he that good that some on JA don’t realise?
Sorry Grandad
That wasn’t meant to be a reply to you
Grandad, maybe a few ex players including Martin Keown, should offer to meet him behind the grandstand.
Exactly Ozziegunner and that will do a lot of help than stay in front of the tv and cause more problems for the club with what they say. Keown didn’t say anything he or others haven’t said before. What he said however right it is, is not appropriate at the moment because it doesn’t solve the despicable and appalling performance we witnessed in our last two matches from the players that were on the field. What did Aubamayang doin those matches but he was left off the hook. This is captain was no where to be found on the pitch. He keeps saying sellOzil without saying how.
New midfield full stop
Makes us look a joke when he’s on that monstrous wage, yet doesn’t even make the squad!! We can’t afford that sort of money to go down the khazi every week!! If you don’t want to play him then why don’t Raul etc pay into Fenerbahce’s go fund me page! How much would it cost to pay him out? That wage has been not only his downfall but ours too…..
It’s got to the stage where in a way it’ll be a relief when he does go… not just for his sanity, but mine too!!
No wonder we’re the butt of everyone’s jokes!!
Here we go again. Instead of properly analyzing why we lost the last two games due mainly to poor team selection, substitutions tactics, and poor play in dangerous areas by defenders, we blame someone who did not play. In case nobody noticed, just look at Everton now compared to earlier this season. This is what a good manager can achieve in short order.
According to Keown, Ozil is a bad influence on our impressionable young players. How does he know that? He doesn’t, he’s just stoking it up again and anyway who does he think he is giving advice to managers about players they know much more about. Get off your hobby horse Martin and accept the reality, we are just not good enough as a TEAM and it is not just one players fault. If you want to offer advice show us how to defend, it was what you were good at. It is obvious that Ozil is no longer the player he was but even at his current level he is still a stretch ahead of Willock or Ceballos in my opinion. This just emphasizes where we are as a club right now and the size of the task facing Arteta in his first role as head coach. This next year will be a make or break period for him.
👍👍👍
Good observation!
We always need a good number 10, that’s why we had poor performances when Ozil was not playing. The reason is not because of Ozil, but rather a proper number 10 is present.
Sadly, a 40% Ozil is still the “best” player for us in the position! Real bad bad management of the team.
Ozil was a five-time German footballer of the year, and a regular starter for the German national team in their world-cup-winning years. That was no fluke. Yet, he declined relatively early.
The crime is not the big contract given to him, but the failure to recognise his decline. If he maintains himself like Ronaldo and Federer, then the big contract is OK.
We should have sold him when he started to decline, not wait for his decline is evident to everybody and his dog. With money from the sales, we should have recruited another good number 10.
Now it is time for the Owner and Management to show their commitment and invest in a good number 10 while still paying Ozil’s contract.
What I always fail to see is even a single true reason why a still significant minorityof Gooners think we should play this idle layabout in every game or at least most. To me he offers nothing at all and on top of this is an appalllingly bad example to younger , more impressionable players that all that matters to him is huge money and it doesn’t matter if you can’t be bothered to try.
He even fakes mysterious and short lived injuries at times and this is clearly true as numerous times he has a bad back, a broken toe nail or a headache(alright the last two are made up but the point is true!). This idle man has been by a distance the single worst buy in my times as a supporter since 1958, simply because of the rotten financial and morally bad example he has chosen to set. The irony is that he had at one time world class talent and were he not so totally lazy and possessed even a scintilla of character and self pride he could have chosen to be an Arsenal legend.
But all actual legends work hard, so that alone rules him out. He needs to go, we need him to go and we need to learn the lesson and NEVER again, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, allow ANY idle coaster to wear out shirt. If one turns out to be such a player then we need to get rid of him pronto, as he is a bad apple and will infect others. Sorry to sit on the fence, so to speak!!! If I said what I really want to say I would incur the wrath of the Admins, so I won’t say it.
@Jon Fox
Please allow me to repond to your previous question to me regarding Ozil here. The fans online may dislike him, but on the ground things are different. The fans cheered his name at the Emirates stadium and took his side during his stand-off with Emery. Eventually it is Emery who left, not Ozil. That’s why I made the claim the Ozil supporters are the majority at this club. Besides, he keeps recording the highest shirt sales at this club so surely who are these people flocking to purchase Ozil-branded club merchandise? They are Ozil fans!
If we bought out Ozil contract we could hold him till his contract expires give him £18 million and let him rot
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE HEARD THE SAME THING? ANYWAY MY PREFERRED 11 TO START VS SOUTHAMPTON FC
………………AUBA
SAKA…….OZIL….PEPE
………XHAKA.NILES
TIER…HOLD…MUST…BELL
Im with Keown on this, the only problem is, Ozil is an Arsenal player, nobody else wants him, we cant shift him, we are stuck with him.
I’d throw him to the U-21’s. I really dont care where he ends up at this point, but he needs to be taken out the dresser room. The other bad influences that actually have interest from other clubs need to be sold. The players that dont care for Arsenal and are here for shopping in London need to GO.
I agree with that, its been like it far too long and im not sure it will change in the near future.