Ian Wright has joked that he has been stripped of his ‘Arsenal legend’ tag after comments made about current Gunner Mesut Ozil.
The German international is widely talked about as being lazy, uninterested and lacking fight amongst a number of fans as well as pundits, and Wright is quite vocal with his own opinions.
The former striker scored 128 goals in 221 English league outings for our club, and is widely considered to be a club legend, but the player himself has now claimed that some sections of fans have revoked his status.
“My legendary status got revoked by some people on Twitter. I told them about themselves,” he said on Match of the Day.
“I’m not a legend anymore, apparently.”
Asked if he would like to make amends with Arsenal fans, he responded: “I’m not shaking anyone’s hand.”
Wrighty’s playing exploits for me cannot be tarnished by criticisms of players, as being a pundit is now his job. I also don’t feel as though his opinion is overly harsh or unjust, and that Ozil does frustrate me when I see him bowling around the pitch nonchalantly.
Yes, when the German is playing well, he is amazing, but when our team needs him and is struggling, he seems to lose the will to fight which is aggravating.
Can a player lose his legend tag by making derogatory comments about the club or its players? Is Wright in the wrong to criticise Ozil?
Pat J
Ian wright will ALWAYS be a legend
Legend yes. Sell out maybe. The truth of the matter is. Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the prem. We are.defo 2nd to utd and maybe even chelsea. The pindits are paid to critisis us and as one of the most talked about clubs it.is big money to have your 2 cents on ARSENAL. Until we start to win the prem or loose on a regular basis this will not change. Pundits do not care they jusy wanat the money like the most of us.
We neeed to get rif of kreonke and get a new owner who gives a shit about us. The only way to move forward. If not we will become a top 6 team. Already on the way
Ian Wright Wright Wright
Ian Wright Wright Wright
Ian Wright Wright Wright
Will Always be a legend current Arsenal stars can not even tie his shoe laces until they have taken the club to the hieghts Wrighty has . Any fan that says otherwise is a dickhead
Ian Wright will ALWAYS be a legend in my eyes! He’s the reason why I became a gooner. Love his passion for the club
Snap
Kinda like being an arsenal fan i guess.
(1) if you dare criticise players some call you not a real fan.
(2) ask no questions, never criticise, sit down shut up just pay money and be blind following the blind.
Stop letting management turn us against one another. Its ALL of us together, not divided; thats what kronke Gadizis and wenger want.
OT. Someone please get JJ Pawn £200 million stat so he’ll stop whining already. Oh, the tears; why oh why isn’t the world fair?
That JJ Pawn has an answer for everything too!!
Are there no more news about the team we can read about.
Sure is, we’re getting Lemar!
In January…….maybe…..if Man utd don’t first.
I know, i know JJ Pawn, if we had £200 million we would get him for sure. But not Neymar, that’s more than £200 million. Oh no, PSG spending now too!
Oh dear…..
He is totally right and I applaud Wrighty for loving the club enough to say it. We need change and we need to improve.
His name alone tells you he’s not wrong, he’s Wright.
And he’s Wright about Ozil, and his comment can only help the German become better.
Legend my big bruva and always will be.
Speak you mind, people won’t always like it but never mind the snow flakes will get over it, Twitter keyboard warriors and nothing to worry about.
Ian Wright, Wright, Wright.
Ozil should listen, take it on the chin and step up to the mark week in week out not just against the lesser teams, he has the quality.
Hmmm so if you use your status as a former player and club legend to come out and say that the team is underperforming and you have issues with certain players you can have your legend status revoked??? Christ….
Despite the criticism I think Ozil is a great player, and can be world-class with the right team around him.
But Ian Wright is entitled to his opinion, and he’s a fantastic pundit. He was also my football hero as a kid, and Wrighty will always be a true Arsenal legend of the highest calibre in my eyes.
As I said earlier, most of our ex-players have been very slow to criticise, but probably more reluctant too, out of respect for Wenger, and our current players. But Arsenal have been so bad, for so long, that our ex-players have run out of excuses. They’re pundits now, and any pundit worth their salt, cannot just turn a blind eye when our players under perform, or to the fact our club is an absolute shambles.
Wright was 100% right to criticise Ozil, because Ozil rarely turns up in a big game, and he doesn’t even want to play for Arsenal anymore anyway! In fact, Ozil’s response tells us a lot about his character more than anything. Clearly he thinks he doesn’t deserve to criticised, or that no one has a right to criticise. Which are both wrong. No one should EVER be above criticism. It was a similar story last season, when Wenger was FINALLY receiving criticism from all quarters, and yet he almost seemed baffled as to why that was happening. Then he started getting tetchy in the press conferences, when asked about the problems at Arsenal. He also thought he should be above any criticism. I think we all learnt a lot about Wenger last season as a person, and now the same with Ozil.
By the way Ozil…Wright is a club legend, that left everything on the pitch, and still loves the club, whilst you can barely break into a sprint!
There is a way to criticize current players (fellow professionals) of a club you love, especially when you’ve been there (what they go through). It can be damaging, especially when the player in question actually does his job, 70% of the time. No one can give 100% all the time; not even Ian Wright. This isn’t a fight about the two; Ozil never mentioned Wright by name and Wright hasn’t even criticized him, to the best of my knowledge, so let’s not make it what it isn’t.
By the way, I don’t think Wright will beat Ozil in a race for the ball. Ozil isn’t a slouch, if you’ve not noticed.
70% of the time wow il ask my boss if he’s ok with me doing 70% then again I’m not on hundreds of thousands £
Yes; of course Wrighty will always be a legend. He had a lot to say as a player so therefore it’s expected he’s got a lot to say as a pundit, however I do think he’s getting on the Arsenal bashing bandwagon with some of he’s latest comments, joining the likes of Alan Smith and Paul Merson who’s been doing it for years. It’s all about money, the money their receiving from TV especially Sky Sports, who have been giving a us a hard time since they’ve been running the game from the early nineties. Smith might have a grievance towards Wenger for outing him when he arrived and as for Merson, well, he’d be sleeping on park bench if it wasn’t for Sky, so they all do as their told to keep their jobs and if that means bashing Arsenal, then there’ll do it. Pro Arsenal? Charlie Nicholas and Martin Keown, true gooners Don’t know how they keep their jobs.
Ian is a legend. If Ozil can play well against the top teams and score 20 goals a season he will prove Wright wrong. Has he score 15 goals a season for Arsenal? If not, why are we paying a huge salary?
Yeah, right. Has Wright given 19 assists in one season? They play different roles, mister. If Wright were still playing and scoring today as he did, he will probably be on £140k/week or more too, so don’t start with the wages argument. Ozil deserves every penny he gets.
First off, I feel we should take these things with some perspective before we make it out to be a fight between Ozil and Wright. Ozil never “stripped” any of our legends of their status; and he never named anyone as his target when he asked them to quit the criticisms and just support. Ian Wright is the only one who took it on himself to call Ozil to order and challenged him not to be a hypocrite and to sign a contract if he “supports” the club.
Wright must be referring to fans attacking him on Twitter when he stated that he’s been stripped of his status as a legend. He will always be one and Ozil appreciates that. It’s a shame how easily fans take sides against a current player in a matter that was merely a current player expressing his frustrations while on international duty (the club will control his statements, otherwise, I expect).
Is Wright wrong? He has a right to speak his mind and he has. It doesn’t matter whether he is right or wrong. So does Ozil, because it’s so hard for him when he feels he’s doing the best he can but keeps bearing the brunt of the team’s failings. Contrary to views, his work rate, per the relevant stats, show him as up there with the best of them. Maybe, we need to pay closer attention to the ground he covers and work he puts in, with and without the ball. Some of these things aren’t evident to the biased eye.
http://www.thickaccent.com/2017/09/11/video-class-liverpool-supporters-singing-their-hearts-out-despite-being-4-0-down-during-city-game/
Spot the difference, gooners.
That’s because they believe in their coach and their players,which is justified. Can’t say the same about my club, coach is washed up, players are not ready to fight.
Wright will always be an Arsenal legend
But it’s fashionable to have a dog at Arsenal will get you headlines and mins on air which for a pundit is currency
Sad to see no support from so many ex players
Pool get smashed 5 0 papers hardly mention it we win and there is still criticism can’t win at mo
On top of it all we have the most moronic fan base in football worst I have seen at Arsenal in over 40 years of being a season ticket holder
Coyg
No fans at all! They are just ‘game goers’ or fake and coward self-proclaimed pundits or managers without experience. The fake fans are the worst component of Arsenal FC; worse than the board, manager or team.
Stoke City did not deserve the 3 points from our game yet they probably deserve more than a point from the Man U game. You will not get that from Wright let alone from x United fans.
x United players
100% right, I said before 90% of the Emirates crowd are newcomers, never went to Highbury.
I am with Ian 100%. I just saw clips of his goals again wayback when and the guy was a bull. Ian had passion, fight, aggression and an unrelenting attitude. Only Sanchez has that in today’s team. I totally understand him and I am happy he stuck it to Ozil. If Mesut signs the contract we put in front of him, he will be making a boat load of money. For that, we expect him to walk on water while on the pitch. We deserve that from him.
He was good but as Wenger said, he has his flaws and bad moments as well. Was never perfect. He still needs to learn punditry. He might have regretted the manner in which he lambasted Arsenal and Arsene. Can he do the same now on Liverpool?