Seems to be a week of ex Gunners announcing their retirements, with Mesut Ozil hanging up his boots less than 24 hours after Adebayor did the same.
Some might say he unofficially retired years ago with his last three employers all paying him to have his contract ripped up.
At the very least you could suggest that while he loved football, it wasn’t his only passion.
In his final year at Arsenal he accepted being paid to essentially sit at home.
The sad part is he might be remembered for the final few years where his potential was unfulfilled, and not for the amazing things he did do on the football pitch.
He won La Liga, ending Arsenal’s 9 year trophy drought by contributing to our 4 FA Cups, lifted the World Cup, got the most assists for three years running in Spain, 19 assists in one season was a Prem record bettered by only one other player, and no one made more goals then him at the 2010 World Cup or Euro 2012.
That’s a CV that most professionals dream of.
It seems strange to list those accolades and then ask was his potential unfulfilled?
Even in Germany where most champions should be idolised, relations are strained with the player accused of lacking loyalty to the nation due to his Turkish heritage.
The 34 year old feels there are examples of discrimination both in the German media and FA, famously saying ‘they only see me as German when we win things.’
Wherever you have agreed with his stance before or not, he’s had the convictions to stick to his principles and been willing to die on his sword.
An admirable quality to have.
When he felt the Kroenke Family were lying over 12.5 pay cuts from the squad saving staff jobs he wasn’t pressured by the majority.
When he felt his refusal was purposely leaked by the club he told his truth which put the negative PR onto the club.
As a senior member of the dressing room he hadn’t refused, he simply wanted clarification what our billionaires owners were doing with their own money to help the club during the Pandemic before giving up his own wage.
He was proven correct when the majority of his peers took the reduction and yet still 55 employees were made redundant.
He even offered to pay the sacked Gunnerssurus’ salary.
He spoke out against China’s persecution of the Uighur population and questioned why Muslims were not highlighting the issue more.
When Arsenal distanced themselves through his agent, he correctly pointed out other political issues the club had been willing to support.
When Arteta didn’t submit him for either his domestic or European squads, through his advisors he wasn’t shy expressing his thoughts why he was suddenly surplus to requirements.
He almost became the poster boy of the transition between Mr Wenger leaving and the rebuilding job at the Emirates.
It’s easy with us top of the League now to say our manager was right to freeze out a player who was never going to track back and suit the current system.
Yet that didn’t explain how he originally trusted him, the player created the winner against West Ham, and that qualified for him to never play for us again?
We never did get that explanation.
How did a player who was creating goals before the Pandemic, afterwards not even make the bench at all?
A bench where you could select 9 names .
With a straight face our manager tried to tell us that football reasons were the only reasons why Ozil wasn’t a sub in the FA Cup Final but Matt Smith was.
Matt Smith at the time was 19 years old, still is yet to play for the first team and has been loaned out to League One Clubs.
For the Spaniard to suggest Smith got on that bench instead of Ozil based on sporting merit, is an insult.
Arsenal are finishing 8th, not qualifying for Europe, our worst finish in quarter of a century, and yet Ozil can’t even be an option off the bench?
If the player was starting before lockdown (and assisting) but suddenly couldn’t get in the team afterwards then common sense says something happened during the 3 month period when the UK was in isolation.
We know during that period two things.
Ozil refused the pay cut and Arsenal’s fixture with Man City was not shown in China due to Ozil’s comments.
Arsenal leaked out both stories making it clear they supported their player on neither case.
So as much the midfielder became the face of everything wrong with the culture of our club to some Gooners, others saw Arsenal sacrifice their principles for the sake of saving money.
Pretending Ozil wasn’t one of our best 23 players, even when we lacked creativity, paying him to sit at home while we were finishing 8th, not even inviting him to attend the Cup Final to pick up his medal, etc.
Not to mention leaking out stories that were untrue, Arsenal did a lot of immoral things to try and make someone feel so miserable he would agree to having his contract ripped up.
A contract Arsenal were happy to offer, a scenario where the man would be made out to not be loyal had he left a free agent.
It’s funny how when a club want to sign a player a player is selfish if they don’t want to extend their deal, yet when it doesn’t suit the club, a player is wrong for not honouring his agreement?
Mr Wenger came the closest to giving a footballing reason why Ozil might not suit the English game in this current era.
In the nineties, early 2000’s you could get away with a number 10, flair players, etc.
An Ozil in any of Mr Wenger’s Double winning teams all Invincibles would almost be a luxury player.
Over the years, the number 10 seems to have gone out of fashion, with coaches preparing hard working midfielders who would allow full backs to be attacking outlets.
Think under Pep Guardiola, a KDB and Silva still need to press and work hard to be in his team.
Ozil wasn’t going to do that.
He didn’t have the personality to be the main man or the leadership qualities to lead others.
It’s a fair accusation to say that to have Ozil at his best, he needed world class talent alongside him (at Real Madrid and Germany).
Yet it’s not his fault he was never given that.
Perhaps zero player in our modern history has divided opinion quite like Ozil.
Arsenal have won 14 FA Cups in their entire history. Ozil contributed to 4 of them. No one can take that away from him.
During our title drought, he was our player of the season the year we finished 2nd. Now there are readers who call 8th and 5th progress.
Ozil challenged for titles, won cups, played in finals.
I know readers who abuse Ozil, who then say it’s negative to say Eddie Nketiah isn’t good enough at this level.
Say that out loud, I can’t say Eddie Nketiah is not good enough but those same people saying that can say Ozil wasn’t.
Ozil retires a La Liga winner, 4 time FA Cup winner, an assist record breaker in England and Spain and a World Cup Winner.
Arsenal have wished him the best of luck on their website.
Quite cheeky given how they treated him in end .
They still failed to answer one simple question though ……..
If he assisted a goal before the Pandemic, how could a game after he suddenly not be good enough to even be in the squad?
I know the answer. Do you?
Dan