Ian Wright has insisted that Mesut Ozil ‘needs to be playing’, and adds that the situation ‘pains’ him.
Our former striker is regularly talking about the goings on at the Emirates, and follows the club heavily as a pundit and as a fan.
Wright claims that Arsenal were not in the wrong to offer Ozil the wages that he was offered, nor is the player in the wrong for receiving his money.
“With Mesut, you see him sending the messages. It’s so sad. Mesut needs to be playing,” Wright stated on his podcast.
“Okay, it’s not worked out how it should have. But Mesut is within his rights to do what he’s doing and it still pains me to know we’ve had a player of that calibre and ability and we’ve not been able to get what we need to get out of him. We’ve not been able to do it.”
READ MORE: Arteta earmarks this group of players for an exit
It could be argued that the club was held to ransom when negotiating the deal, with both he and Alexis Sanchez having allowed their contracts to run into the final six months, while the Chilean left for Manchester United as part of the deal which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the German extended his stay by signing a monster deal to make him the club’s highest earner.
While there was little complaint about the situation at the time, he has offered very little in recent seasons, and has since found himself left out of the playing squad for both the Europa League and the Premier League, whilst remaining on the same contract.
Fans are quick to rumble on about Ozil, but all the reports claim that he is very professional in training, and his social media comments are forever positive about Arsenal, but the fans cannot allow themselves to forget about him and move on.
Admittedly, we as fans/writers can’t move on from him either as people want to read and comment on the latest goings on concerning the midfielder, but it is difficult to blame Ozil for cashing the contract which he earned in the first place.
Patrick
My simple quarrel about the Ozil affair is this: If you park a Mercedes that is out of gas, you cannot replace it with a Toyota that is also out of gas (Willian). Rude! If Arsenal work hard and replace Ozil, the quarrelling will stop. Humans have very short and shockingly selective memory.
No Herb, in fact LONG and selective memories! We humans may well move on, when wechose to but we do NOT forget ever. I am old and even I do not forget all main events and results in landmark episodes that have gone on since 1958, when I started going to games. NO FORGETTING . NEVER.
“It could be argued that the club was held to ransom when negotiating the deal,”.
Please stop it. A big club that lets itself get manipulated by one player deserves it.
It is obvious by now that exiling him for football reasons was dumb while exiling him for any other reason was even dumber.
Meanwhile the club keeps loosing the PR war and the sooner they let him go the better.
Get it over with Kroenke.
News like this doesn’t help.
“Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has shown his class off the pitch again by assisting a young Kenyan boy, Lawrence Masira, with a signed autograph and a bag full of face masks.
The Gunners midfielder has come to support the Kenyan boy he helped with playing boots two years ago.
So for those who say Ozil is undermining the club, he helped this boy 2 years ago.
Ozil is the most overhyped player un world football….he should be ashamed that Saka and ESR are contributing more than him…At an astronomic salary…
pores, has it occurred to you that Saka and ESR are able to contribute, because they are being selected to play?
Who was responsible for allowing the contracts to run down Patrick?
The club were responsible for presenting a new contract.
Then the player responds to that offer… at least that’s how I’ve always thought it happened.
Good old Wrighty – he always speaks the truth and echoes the thoughts of the “vast majority” of our fans, as shown in our recent poll.
Cannot wait for this circus to end.
Emile Smith Rowe: “I look up to Mesut Özil a lot. I watch him in training and the movement he has and the little touches he does. For me to train with him every day, I can’t think of anything better.”
A player who still do well at training and inspire young player that watch him and do well is left out of the squad and has been called names.
How many player who hasn’t been performing well recently including Auba, but they play every single game, do you still want to tell me that Ozil is not performing, while there’s lot of good say about his performance in training doesn’t deserve to be in the squad like the rest, come on think twice. We will only forget about Ozil once he leaves the club. As for now we wanna see him playing