Could a Mesut Ozil departure benefit us? By Nick
Rumors are currently swirling around that Unai Emery might want to offload Mesut Ozil this winter. If the rumors are true this will be the second midfielder we’ll be losing in 2019. Since our only option is to loan at the moment, selling Ozil could give us some extra money to buy players.
I was looking at some of our transfer rumors and found that Conor Coady from Wolves is one defender we’re linked with. For me, getting a player like him won’t make the team better but due to our lack of funds, that’s the type of player we might have to be getting. I think he’s better than Laurent Koscielny, but it still just doesn’t seem right that we’re linked with a player from a lower table club when we’re meant to be the top 6 richest/biggest club in Europe. I don’t know if it’s selfishness, but I just want to see us linked with bigger players.
It’s obviously clear Unai Emery doesn’t rate Ozil. His last game he played for us was 45 minutes against Brighton on Boxing Day. For a player on £350,000 a week, that’s a huge burden on us financially if he’s not going to be used every single week. It’s completely fine if Emery does not think he’ll be an asset to the team week in week out, but if that’s the case, we should be urgent to sell him, and should be looking for a replacement as soon as this month.
This whole situation in my eyes is not Emery’s fault, and I strongly believe he’s in the right in all this. The main people we should be slating, is the past regime. Ozil did not have the best season last year, and putting him on £350,000 a week just to ensure we don’t lose Alexis and him in the SAME window is despicable. If Emery doesn’t think Ozil fits in his plans, than I think he’s completely correct, but we can’t deny the fact that we do lack a lot of creativity without him. There’s only one thing that I disagree with Emery, and that is the fact that Mesut Ozil was left completely out of the 18 man squad this weekend against West Ham. In a game where we lacked creativity and looked flat, he would’ve been a good player to bring on in the second half to help create more chances.
Although it will be sad and maybe devastating to the team if Mesut Ozil left, but it’s honestly the best we can do in order to decrease our wage bill. We can cry out for money from Stan Kroenke, but no matter how much we do we’re not getting anything this January. I strongly believe that selling Ozil could benefit us and maybe save our season. He is not getting any younger, and I think if we want maximum money for him, we need to sell now, or in the summer. I think if we sell Ozil and buy a defender and midfielder with his fee, it will be good business by us.
If we try selling Ozil it won’t be easy. Mesut has recently expressed his love for Arsenal and that he wants to stay, so it’ll be hard for teams to convince him to join their club. Another problem is, who would want to pay his wages? I know there are clubs in China that could pay them, but it’s not very attractive for him as he’s still an ambitious player and wants to win trophies. I don’t think any club would want to pay £350,000 a week for a 30 year old, so after all we might be stuck with him for 2 more seasons, and it’s all thanks to the past regime…
Nick Carson