While the Germany international star, who Arsene Wenger smashed the Arsenal transfer record to sign from Real Madrid a few years ago, was one of a number of high profile Gunners to enter the final year of their current contracts during the recent summer transfer window, there was far less talk and far fewer Arsenal transfer rumours about Mesut Ozil than there were about our Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez and the new Liverpool player Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
As Wenger struggled to keep the Ox and Alexis in north London he did not appear to have much to do in the way of fending off transfer bids for the German play maker, but at the same time we seem no nearer to getting Ozil to put pen to paper on a new deal to keep him at the club.
So will Ozil be heading off on a free transfer at the end of the current campaign, as one report in The Mirror this week has claimed, saying that contract talks between the Gunners and our number 11 have broken down? It is certainly a possibility, although Ozil seems happier with his role as an Arsenal player than Sanchez does.
Another Mirror report in which the boss denies that talks have broken down and suggests that they are just slow going, claims that the reason no new contract has yet been agreed is because of the difference between what the Arsenal board are offering Ozil in the way of salary and what he and his people are asking for.
Some Arsenal fans, and possibly Wenger himself, will say is that the German has not exactly been showing himself to be worth the same sort of money we were willing to pay Alexis to sign a new deal and the lack of offers from other clubs for him supports this idea.
Is it in fact the case that it is not Arsenal FC but the player himself that needs to step up and show the sort of form that will get him the contract offer that will secure his future as a gunner?
Bob.