Arsenal will persuade Mesut Ozil to sign a new contract with the club, according to former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol.
The Gunners currently have huge question marks over the futures of a number of key players, with Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud all strongly linked with moves away from the club.
The former trio of course can all leave the club on free transfers at the end of the campaign when their contracts run out, but Alexis is the only one who appears certain to actually quit the club regardless of the offer on the table.
Nicol is now claiming that the German will stay, with Arsenal having to go all-out to make sure they do not lose both he and the Chilean in the same window.
“I would suggest he has to stay,” the Scot said.
“There’s no way Arsenal can let both him and Alexis Sanchez go.
“I think they will figure something out, so I think Ozil stays.”
The former defender was then asked his views on Giroud’s situation, having found himself benched in each Premier League match bar the West Ham match last night.
“If he wants to play, he has to leave Arsenal and I do believe that he wants to play,” Nicol added.
“I think if he has a decent World Cup that’s certainly going to help his case because he will be with France.
“So, absolutely he has to go, he can’t stay at Arsenal.”
The German has always refused to rule out the potential decision to stay put, but have we lost all strength in negotiation with so little time remaining on his contract?
Pat J
I think its safe to say Ozil produces 1 brilliant game every 4-8 weeks so he is simply not worth the 300k+ he is demanding. In fact, I think it would be best if he left in January as we will really need the money to rebuild our team. As we are displaying 5th spot form hopefully this time around 5th means the sack for Wenger.
I agree. On his day he is amazing but they are few and far between.
You can’t pay £300,000 per week for that
If he played like 2015-2016 when he scored 19 assists it be different but he hasn’t repeated that season. Also, he doesn’t defend and doesn’t score much. I think he needs real competition. I think Ericksen, Da Silva, de Bruyne and Fibreglass are more consistent attacking midfielders. He also needs better CM behind him. I miss Cazorla
He’s been named MOTM in the last 4 games. In fact, he’s the only one who plays like he actually gives a flying f#$%k. Give Ozil weapons, and he’ll shine. He needs Lacazette on the pitch, not on the bench. He needs Santi Cazorla behind him. He needs Sanchez the warrior, not Sanchez the little Chilean Le Sulk and pathetic bi&#$ch.
I hope Giroud stays. We need two good scorers. Giroud is one of the PLs best SuperSubs
Before the season starts, I wanted everyone to stay. But now I don’t care anymore. They all can leave.
Bellerin, mustafi, and yes even alexis and Cech.
For today’s game, Like I wanted to criticize wenger for taking alexis off, but then he was acting like a toxic troll, shouting at everybody. Makes you wonder what’s the point to even keep them. I think we should just like let them all go, we can’t get any worse- we almost lost today.
Alexis and Bellerin have been the worst players for us this season. Anyone who can’t see it is a fool. I’m an AKB but I can’t defend him for his team selections lately. If Sanchez is behaving like a little Chilean Le Sulk and diva that he is, then bench him. If Bellerin doesn’t stop paying more attention to his hair rather than his game, bench him. Playing Niles on the left doesn’t make sense because he’s a right footed player. Not having Theo even on the bench doesn’t make sense because he just scored in Europa League and is fit and ready to go. So many things that don’t make sense…
Steve who?
Who he?
How he know?