The contractual saga regarding Mesut Ozil has received nowhere near as much attention as the situation surrounding Alexis Sanchez and Arsene Wenger. However the German reportedly did something last weekend, that has really ticked the boss off.
Despite Arsenal not exactly being known to be ruthless, according to reports, Arsene Wenger is ready to consider selling the midfielder this summer, after Ozil came into conflict with the boss. Ozil reportedly withdrew himself from Arsenal’s match day squad for the trip to West Brom at the weekend, after raising concerns about a hamstring issue. The German felt it wasn’t worth the risk and it was deemed enough to miss the fixture. Less than a week later however, Ozil now sees himself linking up with the German national squad for the upcoming round of international fixtures. It sparked concerns that Ozil had lied or at least exaggerated about the extent of the injury concern, in order to avoid playing for Arsenal during this tough time.
The midfielder has been out of form for quite some time and has been recognised as a bit of a scapegoat this season. It all seems to have become too much for Ozil and having missed a number of weeks since the turn of 2017, citing different injuries as the reason for his absence, you have to wonder if all these injury concerns were genuine or not.
In my opinion, Ozil doesn’t come across as a player who would lie about an injury concern to get out of playing for the team. Various players in the past and present have lied about injuries to get them out of international duty, but it’s very rare you’ll see a player doing the same when it comes to playing for their club side.
Ultimately if Arsene Wenger does leave the club in the summer, then the decision to sell Ozil or not, is not down to him. Instead, it’ll be down to the Frenchman’s successor. However it wouldn’t surprise me if the decision to sell Ozil is made, with this latest outburst being the final chapter on what has been a less than consistent career with Arsenal.
AH