All Arsenal fans are aware that Arsene Wenger gave Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski extra time off in the summer to recover from their exertions of winning the World Cup, but even with that break it seems that neither have fully recovered their fitness or form.
Although Ozil managed to start six games before succumbing to injury, Wenger thinks that his problems started before the season even started. “He will not be back until January. He came back from the World Cup with an injury,” said Le Prof. “He had a very good first season with us. I think we will see the best of Ozil in the seasons to come.”
It does make you wonder why Wenger played Ozil if he knew he was carrying an injury, but poor Podolski hasn’t even had much chance to play at all. Wenger again blamed the World Cup for his lack of playing time, although Podolski was hardly stretched with less than 100 minutes playing time in Brazil. “Podolski plays a position where there is a big competition. He came very late from his holidays after the World Cup in the summer, so he started after his team-mates and was not good physically.” Wenger explained.
That only makes me wonder how long it takes a professional footballer to get fit enough to be able to play in the Premer League. The season did begin three months ago, but Podolski has only made one start and four substitute appearances since then.
There is little wonder that Podolski has been moaning about his time on the bench, but Wenger is adamant that the rumours about the German leaving during the winter transfer window are far from true. Wenger said: “It is not established at all that he will leave at Christmas. It is me who sets the price and the reported deal doesn’t correspond at all to his price. He is not for sale and there is no offer.”
I guess that doesn’t imply that Podolski WILL NOT move in January if the right offer came along, but it certainly makes it very unlikely. And Ozil will be a star “in the seasons to come” so it doesn’t sound like Wenger has any intention of letting him go either. But I’m not sure whether Wenger has cleared up the situations of either German. In fact he has probably raised more questions han answers….