Ozil or the Kroenke’s – where should our attention and anger be focused? by Terry Barry
I have just listened to two well known bloggers and heard how they both interpret and discuss the Ozil drama. The discussion was all about whose side are you on – Ozil or Emery – whether Ozil is worth the money – is he a problem to manage – what about his latest tweet etc etc. I think this perspective is too narrow and shallow and because of these shortcomings it complete fails to see what’s really going on here and what needs to be addressed.
The treatment of Ozil is symptomatic of the malaise which is affecting the entire Club from top to bottom. It’s the obvious tip of the iceberg and where all the media’s attention is focused. There is little attention paid to the fact that the Club is now a US style Corporation – owned by very unsavoury people – engaged in a money making product which just happens to be football. The objective of this Corporation is wholly concerned with money and has very little to do with football. Therefore continuing to discuss the Ozil situation solely in footballing terms is wholly inadequate and inappropriate and can only lead to erroneous conclusions. You have to look deeper to understand what’s happening with Ozil.
As the highly regarded BBC journalist David Ornstein pointed out in a recent excellent Arseblogger Arsecast the Club are seeking to make life as uncomfortable as possible for Ozil in order that they can get rid of him. This is the instruction that has come down from on high!
Just as in a different way the Club has got rid of Ramsey from the payroll they are now seeking to get rid of Ozil. Why are they doing this? Is it because they are not good enough footballers or is it because the Club is seeking to cut costs? In short it’s called asset stripping.
You have to answer this fundamental question in order to understand what is really going on here. You have to ‘get’ that Arsenal is now a multinational Corporation – it’s not just a football club any more. A multi national Corporation is not concerned with football. It is only concerned with money. As Ian Wright pointed out a couple of years back when he saw this coming :“When Arsene Wenger leaves – who in the Club is going to speak up about football and represent its interest.” He was completely right. Who in the Club today is standing up for the interest of our football now that he has gone? Nobody!
So what I am saying is the so called Club is not really interested in football – it is only interested in money-making for the Kroenke’s – we first saw this with the brand promoting and money-making preseason tours to far flung parts of the globe – why else would we accept money from the oppressive regime of Rwanda – why else would the Kroenke’s take money – £2M – out of the Club as ‘consultancy fees’ – why else would we not have money for transfers in January – why else would a preseason dictate be sent to all departments telling them to make cuts – why else would they want to get good players like Ozil and Ramsey off the pay roll – what has happened to all Arsenal’s activities in the wider Community – is money for these activities being cut back? Arsenal is now all about money-making and money-making for the Kroenke’s – remember these people gave $1M to support the oppressive regime of Trump! And there’s also what they did to the St Louis Rams in the States…
I believe that continuing to discuss Ozil or anything going on in the Club solely in football terms completely misses the point because by ignoring the influence of the Kroenke’s, their money men executives who run the Club and the particular model of US style Corporation we have become – you start with a completely inadequate and misguided perspective and hence end up with a wholly erroneous interpretation of events.
Ozil and Ramsey are not going or being pushed to go because they are ineffective footballers or they don’t fit in with the managers style of football (if so surely we would hear that as an explanation or if we did hear that, surely we would then seriously question the managers ability to understand football) – no, they are going simply because the Club seeks to cut costs. Money has been and is increasingly going to be sucked out of the Club – it’s disinvestment for the benefit of the Kroenke’s and not as we all hoped investment into the Club in order to make us European Cup contenders as we are told is the owners vision for the Club. What a load of bollox – do they really think we are so stupid?
I do wish people would stop contextualising and seeking to explain and evaluate everything within the very narrow and limited confines of Mesut Ozil and the playing of football – whether his attitude or body language is right or how many games he has started etc etc. – needless to say with rarely an acknowledgement of how the way the Club is treating him or, more accurately, completely ***king him about might affect his performances or referencing his PR Machine, or what a cynic might say about his latest tweet.
To adopt this narrow and critical of Ozil’s perspective I believe is completely misguided and serves only to distract our attention from the true villains here – the Kroenke’s and what they are doing to the Arsenal. This is where we need our journalists to be digging if we are to properly understand what is happening at the Arsenal. Only when we do this will people begin to wake up as to what is really going on at ‘our’ Club!
All the best
Terry Barry