TalkSports’ Georgie Bingham has labelled Arsenal’s decision to give Mesut Ozil £350k per week in 2018 as a stupid decision made by the club.
The German is entering the final year of a three and half year deal that Arsenal offered him at the start of 2018.
Arsenal was facing the prospect of losing the German and Alexis Sanchez for free in the summer as they struggled to get both players on new deals.
They would eventually allow Sanchez to join Manchester United in a swap deal that brought Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the Emirates.
They managed to keep hold of Ozil, but not before they offered him a new contract worth £350k per week.
Since he signed the new deal, the German has been underwhelming and just a season into the new deal, the club realised that they had made a mistake and they have been trying to get rid of him ever since.
Speaking on her weekend show, Bingham questioned why Arsenal gave him his last contract and branded the decision a stupid mistake.
“Well I kind of always actually think the problem with Mesut is that the noises that come from him are not resolute enough,” Bingham said.
“So I think, if I were Mesut Ozil, or if you were in the position that Mesut Ozil is in, you would say ‘I take the can for being our stand-out, big star and it is my responsibility to lead this team and to prove to everyone that I am worth the salary that I’m on.’
“Listen, nobody’s career can be all flowers and rainbows and I realise that and I think Ozil has had a really tough time.
“I also think there are times when he gets hung out for no reason. But I also think it is Arsenal’s biggest mistake of the last 10 years.
“They haven’t made that many, in terms of they went through a period where they would lose a lot of players who were out of contract. That has largely, actually not been too big a problem.
“Although obviously with Sanchez and Ozil and their contract running down at the same time was an issue.
“But rewarding a player that does not deserve that reward is the stupidest mistake Arsenal have made. Manchester United made it with Alexis Sanchez as well, by the way.
“And he hadn’t even earned it at Manchester United, he had earned it at Arsenal. But it was a move that I think was quite political as well in terms of stealing him from underneath Manchester City’s noses.
“Because I do feel like if he went to Manchester City it might have gone better for him, funnily enough.
“But the problem with Ozil is the stick to beat him with is the fact that I don’t think he deserved that contract.
“I think Arsenal were really stupid handing it out and it’s something that we beat them with.”
The lady is correct in terms of a single financial implication which we are locked into, but during the past decade, there have been so many errors of judgement which have combined to create our mid table mediocrity.However, on a brighter note, we have a number of very talented youngsters who can make the grade, but we need to unload a group of very average experienced players before we can progress under our bright , progressive Manager.
Grandad
You are on fire!
You write your post and I’ll keep putting a 👍 to you
Yes Grandad, the greater pouint than merely the Ozil mistake – and boy what a mistake it has been – is thee appointment of people to run things who are so incompetent that they should not be put in charge of a whelk stall, let alone a great football club.
GAZIDISwas of course by a huge distance the single most damaging employee Arsenal EVER had. Kroenke the most damaging owner in our history and by an even more huge margin. One of them gone then, one more to go. This virus may yet turn out to be our saviour by forcing Kroenke to sell. TALK ABOUT A SILVER LINING THEN!
I’m not sure why this pundit seems to think she is making such a profound statement.
Anyone and everyone knows the decision to offer such an obscene and grotesque salary, WHOEVER THE PLAYER WAS, must go down as the biggest blunder in our clubs history.
It is what it is, however and for someone to think they are making ground breaking headlines in order to seem intelligent, is laughable – when are we going to get “pundits” who actually tell us something we don’t already know?!
Exactly, Ken 👍👍