Photo via Eurosport
One of the highest-paid benchwarmers in football could soon find himself without a club.
Mesut Özil, once the darling of Arsenal, is facing the prospect of having his contract terminated.
The former Germany international has not played for the Gunners in the past seven months, after being informed that he does not feature in the plans of manager Mikel Arteta.
This is proving to be a very expensive problem for the Gunners, who have to pay 350 thousand pounds PER WEEK to a player who can’t even get into the matchday squad, let alone the first-eleven.
After trying unsuccessfully to get rid of him in recent months, the club are now believed to have resumed negotiations to try and end his contract early.
They’re hoping to save a bit on their wage bill by offloading the player now, rather than keep him until the end of his contract next summer.
Özil, however, is having none of this, and is insisting on being paid the full 13 million remaining on his deal.
Talks between player and club are still ongoing, with rumours of a move to Turkey also being discussed.
Photo via Getty
How did it all go so wrong?
Özil arrived at the Emirates amid much fanfare in 2013, with the Gunners breaking their then-transfer record to pay Real Madrid 42.5 million pounds for the German’s services.
Things were actually going well for Özil in his first few seasons in London.
He helped Arsenal end their nine-year wait for a trophy by winning the FA Cup in 2014, going on to win the tournament again in 2015 and 2017.
He also achieved success with Germany, winning the 2014 World Cup.
Such was his contribution to the club, that Arsenal offered him a new contract in 2018 that made him their highest-paid player at the time.
It is around this period, that things started going downhill for Özil.
Inexplicably, his performance began to suffer, worst still, he started coming under fire from fans, pundits and club legends alike for not working hard enough on the pitch.
Similar criticism also extended to the national team, with Özil eventually quitting Die Mannschaft after their disastrous outing at the 2018 World Cup.
Özil also found himself embroiled in controversies off the pitch, including a political scandal, being the victim of a high-profile robbery, and being slammed for recently refusing to take a pay-cut to help the club out financially.
Unfortunately, for this once-great player, there will be no fairytale ending to his Arsenal journey.
by Nicholas Darren John
