To be fair to the Arsenal and Germany international star Mesut Ozil, he is right about the fact that there can be too much criticism and negativity aimed at the Arsenal team and at individual players, including himself, buy a lot of Arsenal fans and by former players.
It really does not help, after all, when a team is struggling for form or a player for confidence to constantly hear how bad you are. We hear enough of that from football pundits who quite often appear to have an axe to grind against the Gunners for some reason.
When the likes of Ian Wright, Thierry Henry or the always negative Paul Merson get stuck into Arsenal it is sometimes understandable and with the first two I think it comes from the same sort of frustration that the average fan feels. But as Ozil said this week in comments on social media reported by Sky Sports, it would perhaps be better if people got behind the team rather than always putting them down.
The play maker wrote, “During the last couple of days my DFB [Germany] teammates have been asking me about how everything is at Arsenal at the moment.
“They claimed to have read about the current crisis through the media, as pundits and former players are commenting on a daily basis. They say that this could be the worst team in years, even decades.
“We have achieved a lot in our four years together [at Arsenal]. Three of the 13 FA Cup victories have been accomplished in the past four years, with the other 10 taking 75 years for the club to win.
“This is in addition to our three Community Shield wins. After all, six titles in four years is quite something. However, this only makes myself and the team even more disappointed for not playing a role in the title race at the end of last season – this is something we hope to change this year.
“Personally I’ve had to accept a lot of criticism during my time in London. ‘Too expensive, too greedy, bad body language, and lacking fight’ – this is what people have said about me.
“Some of these comments are made by those who do not know me, some are made by former players – both successful and unsuccessful during their time here at the club.
“Although criticism is something that all football players have to deal with, I nevertheless expected legends to behave like legends – my advice to these former Gunners: stop talking and start supporting!”
He does have a point I think. However, it is sometimes very hard to muster up any positivity when everything seems to be going wrong and I think it is a cyclical thing. A win or at least a strong performance from the lads would help us to get behind them and then they would feel the support and respond once again.
I am going to try to stay positive and see what happens. How about you?
Sam P.