Even after Mesut Ozil is long gone from Arsenal, the former German international is still making headlines. Turkish side Fenerbahce, the club Ozil joined in January of 2021 after leaving Arsenal, have excluded him from the squad along with teammate Ozan Tufan.
football.london understands this was due to a verbal altercation with the club’s interim manager. Arsenal fans will be very familiar with instances of conflict between Ozil and club management throughout his time at the club. Some specifically footballing matters and beyond.
Unai Emery had issues with Ozil regarding a lack of ‘aggressive pressure’ that the attacking midfielder simply could not provide the Spaniard. Emery dropped Ozil on numerous occasions in favour of players better suited to what he demanded.
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"But there were times when I had to leave one of them out of the XI. Ozil is a very important player if you can find a way to make it work with other players," Emery told BBC Sport via The Mirror.
"He has talent that allows other players to be better, but when you want a bit more aggressive pressure, he does not have the best qualities for that."
Mikel Arteta took over from Emery and initially integrated Ozil into his team. However, after the return of football having been suspended due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, Ozil did not feature.
At the start of the 2020/21 campaign, Mikel Arteta decided to leave Ozil out of the Premier League and Europa League squads for the season. This would be when Mesut Ozil would make his decision to accept his time at the club had come to an end and he left the following January.
Arteta, however, said in response to a statement released by Ozil, "Everybody is free to express their feelings."
"It was just a football decision, and my conscience is very calm because I have been really fair with him. My level of communication with him has been high, we know what to expect with each other. He has had the opportunities like everybody else. I'm sad that I had to leave three players out of this list but I tried to look everybody in the eye and be comfortable with it.
"With Mesut, I have this feeling because I have been very straightforward since I arrived at this club. It's nothing related to [Ozil's] behaviour. It's my decision."
Arteta instead replaced Ozil in the squad in January with Martin Odegaard after a clear lack of creativity was seen in the first half of a disappointing season. Since, Odegaard has joined permanently and become a fulcrum of the team, famed for his aggressive pressures on the opposition. Exactly what former coach Emery dropped Ozil for.
Ozil however, having now left Arsenal, clearly had an issue with the Spaniard. After the 5-0 defeat against Manchester City, he tweeted a slogan related to Arteta’s Arsenal tenure, 'Trust the process.' Attached with a broken heart and sad face emoji.
Whilst never followed upon, it was clear that many of the Arsenal supporters in the replies had made their minds up that this was a dig towards the Spanish coach. From a personal perspective, it is hard to disagree.
When considering in the wake of the City defeat, Arsenal have had a very strong season and sit in the driving seat for fourth spot, and Ozil has not tweeted anything positive about the Gunners’ turnaround, it makes it seem rather satirical. Yet Arteta’s decision now looks more vindicated than ever.
The exclusion of Ozil will only fuel the arguments in favour of Arteta’s decision to move him on with other players to have breached the famous non-negotiables. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had the captaincy stripped and eventually he was allowed to leave on a free transfer to Barcelona.
Ozil wished Aubameyang ‘all the best’ in a reply to the Gabonese’s goodbye Instagram post. As did plenty of other members of the squad.
However, perhaps this again shows the achievement Arteta has had with his current group of players. Despite popular figures being ruthlessly dealt with, the Arsenal team remains fully supportive of their manager.
The Arsenal players celebrate wins to a level that has got public retorts from opposition players. The team regularly praise the coach in interviews and even those that have since left, such as Pablo Mari who joined Udinese on loan, have spoken highly of him.
Arteta is building a group of young, motivated and devoted players who have bought into his philosophy. The end-of-season run will be crucial to further vindicate the decisions of Arteta, however, the Ozil saga whilst over appears to still very much have been a good move by the Arsenal manager.
