Most of the comments on the JustArsenal Twitter account about Mesut Ozil’s recent statement about the Arsene Wenger contract situation has been either positive about Ozil’s stance i.e. “Great to see our star player respecting our great manager”, or totally negative i.e. “Wenger has to go and he can take Ozil with him!” I’m going to try and look at it from a balanced point of view….
There have been many differing translations from his German interview on Kicker, so I am going to use the one from the BBC, which I guess should be trustworthy. “I want to be clear on what Wenger is doing,” said Ozil.
“I feel very, very happy at Arsenal and have shown the club that I am prepared to extend my contract,”
“The fans want me to stay. Now it’s just down to the club.”
“The club knows that I am, above all, here because of Arsene Wenger – who signed me and whose trust I have,” added Ozil.
“The club also knows that I just want to be clear on what the manager will do.”
Okay so here are the benefits as far as I am concerned. We now that that if Wenger signed a new extension, then Ozil will follow suit, and that can only be good for the club.
BUT if everything goes wrong towards the season and Wenger finds himself getting abused by the fans again, then he may decide that he has had enough of being unappreciated, and may decide NOT take up the club’s offer of a new extension. This could also be good for the club, because if Ozil (and maybe Alexis and others who will have one year left on their contracts) decide they want to leave as well, then we can get fortunes by selling them on in the summer.
This would then mean that the new manager will have a fantastic transfer fund to rebuild the team with his own players, and can stamp his own authority on the team.
Wouldn’t that be a good thing?
Admin
Doesn’t Wenger treat Özil with silk gloves? Didn’t Wenger himself reveal that Özil trains a lot less than others? Also if you go back to check Arsenal’s YouTube videos where they ask players questions like “who’s the ‘teachers pet’ at Arsenal” and some players mention Özil.
Ozil wants Wenger to stay as he will always pick him, any one else would drop him if he played the way he has been at times. It’s time now for Arsenal to move with the times and bring in a manager that was Wengers age 20 years ago. CB
So, if you want a manager who was Wengers age 20 years ago, you want a manager who’s now 87.
I think you mean you want a manager 20 years younger than Wenger is now!
No a manager that is the age that Wenger was in 1997 now. Thought I said that. CB
Sanchez !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ozil ????????????????????????
I think, we can not win titles with Wenger in charge, Arsenal needs to get out of this Wenger era and this tip 4 race and finishing above spurs.
Arsenal is very big club and should aim for Champins league and should be competing the the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona, instead of feeling proud of going above Spurs.
we should target some one like Diego Simmone or the Italian coach who recently shows interest in Joinning Arsenal.
Even if it means loosing the Big 2. We need to built from the fresh.
Fresh ideas will only come from a new Manager.
Look at the team we had at the start of the season, our bench strength is much better than most of the team , still we are unable to compete at the top.
If not now, When will Weneger win titles for us?
Sunny
In theory your analysis is sound. However I don’t think we would get a fortune for Ozil and Sanchez. Buyers will know Arsenal have the knife on their throat because these guys are on their last year of their contract. If Arsenal ask too much and the buyer walks away Arsenal risks being stuck with an unhappy player who’s value will be zero at the end of the season.
Having said that if Arsenal were able to sign Simeone this might convince Sanchez to stay. Sell Ozil for 30 or 40, which would be good money and add it this money to Simeone’s transfer kitty.
Finishing outside the top 4 would mean we would desperately need Simeone in order to be able to convince top players to come to Arsenal even though we don’t have CL football. I don’t think a manager like Howe would convince any foreign player to join Arsenal if we could not offer CL football.
Shut up. You don’t know anything of the market of today.
Chinese buyers made an offer of 100M for Ozil and 120M for Alexis.
And both AC and Inter have made offers for Alexis around 70M.
Bayern made an offer of 75M for Mesut, I would let him go and buy Griezmann or Auba so we can play with 2 strikers.
Thank you for your kind reply. If we get 70 million for Ozil come find me on this forum and gloat, I will find you if we get anything less than 70 million.
It would be moronic to pay that kind of money for any unhappy player in their last year of their contract.
Sell Sanchez and Ozil??..are you kidding me?…with how crazy the market is right now you can’t replace this two even if you had 100milion pounds
“BUT if everything goes wrong towards the season and Wenger finds himself getting abused by the fans again, then he may decide that he has had enough of being unappreciated”
unappreciated?? you still want Wenger to stay? you think its ok to sell Sanchez and Ozil but the untouched cancer in team to stay put and ruin more lives?
the most experienced manager in the league but still gets bullied by new comers? not only new comers, Leicester were kids trained by a new comer and still found a way to win the title, but our old man only finds new excuses day in day out to cover for his failure
let’s sell Sanchez and keep Wenger, may be this January he’ll buy again another Kim K to mock us
Don’t worry Dennis10Berkamp is confident we will get a minimum of 140 million for the pair.
LOL
I heard simeone is going stay at Athletico next year,same with Dortmund coach,I don’t see any other top manager for the Arsenal job. So,who’s going to replace Wenger if he walks at the end of the season.
I just can’t see us winning any important titles with Wenger. He can’t or refuses to make the needed tactical changes in his style and he doesn’t seem to be able to get 100% out of the team consistently. I think Arsenal should aim not only to win the Premier League but also to become one of the best in Europe, and I don’t believe Wenger can take us there. So for me, he has to go even if Ozil follows him out of the door.
Yes.. as much as we want to back Wenger and give him the respect he deserves, he consistently baffles us with strange team selections , embarrassing excuses and stubborn tactics. The latest example in the cup game other day against Preston.. Sitting on the bench was Jenkinson and Holding who seemed to me perfect players for this game with FA cup experience and a natural fit to the side. But he plays young miles out of position as if he needs that and headless pairing of Gab + Must, new to the competition. Just another example of ‘WTF’ ! Why is Jenko there if not for a game like that????