While rivals Chelsea have included retired former goalkeeper Petr Cech in their 25-man squad for the Premier League, Arsenal have left out Mesut Ozil from their set of players to choose from this season.
The decision has been a tough pill for the German to swallow, who voiced his opinion on social media with the following message to his fans:
Ozil is the highest-paid player at Arsenal in the history of the club and is not even eligible to make up the numbers on the bench during match days. He joins centre back Sokratis as one of the other players to be left out.
The £350 thousand wage every single week has been supplemented with an £8 million loyalty bonus by the club very recently. However, the expenses won’t last too long as it is now being evidently clear that the attacking midfielder has no future at Arsenal.
At 32, Ozil still has one or two good years left in him, but it is unlikely that any teams in Europe’s top five leagues will be willing to match his wages at Arsenal.
A transfer to less competitive leagues like the MLS, Turkish or Chinese leagues would be the ideal move for the player as the teams there can pay his wages whilst offering him minutes and the absence of the mountain of pressure that European football brings.
The former Real Madrid man joined Arsenal in 2013, and has failed to live up to the hype. His talent is undoubtedly world-class, but a lack of good performances on the pitch has seen him left out of the season’s plans by Mikel Arteta.
The possible reason for the absence of Ozil and Sokratis from the 25-man Premier League squad for the season has been deemed to be the homegrown players rule by the Daily Star.
According to the rule, Arsenal are not allowed to have 21 non-homegrown players in their squad. Hence, meeting the required number of heads at 19 has resulted in the pair being left out.
Do check out:
