Rob Holding has identified Mesut Ozil as the best player he has shared the dressing room with during his time at Arsenal and reminisced on one moment of magic from the ex- Germany international.
Ozil arrived at the Emirates in 2013 to overwhelming fanfare, three years before Holding's more understated arrival as an unknown youngster from Bolton. While it didn't exactly end the way either party would have liked for Ozil at Arsenal, his Gunners stay was still littered with some sensational skill.
The former Real Madrid man has since retired and even his farewell to the game was relatively understated for someone whose star once shone so bright. Ozil left the stage through the side door rather than a grand goodbye, calling time on his playing days after an injury-hit spell at Istanbul Basaksehir.
However, for anyone who may have doubted or forgotten just how mercurial the midfielder was on his day, Holding's comments serve as a stark reminder.
"A lot of Arsenal players have always said Santi Cazorla [is the best they've played with] because with both feet, technically he’s so clean," the defender told the Jaxxon Podcast. "I agree completely and I think he was great, but Mesut Ozil just used to do these magic things and you’d see these little glimpses in training.
"I remember a session, when [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan had just signed. We did a possession-based drill and those two were on the same team. They just completely ran it around us, just passing to each other, barely using anyone else. It was frightening.
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I thought we were going to win the league. I thought with these guys we’re just going to rip it up now and it’s going to be incredible. His [Ozil’s] football intelligence is just so high."
Many fans thought that upon his arrival a decade ago, Ozil would fire Arsenal to the Premier League, but not even his playmaking prowess could inspire such a feat.
He didn't miss out on silverware altogether though and in fact, played a crucial role in ending the Gunners' nine-year wait for a trophy when he helped Arsenal lift the 2014 FA Cup.
Two more FA Cups followed in 2015 and 2017. While technically Arsenal's FA Cup triumph of 2020 will show up in Ozil's honours list, in truth he barely featured.
In fact, on the day of the final, having been informed he was not in the match-day squad, Ozil jetted out to Turkey instead of remaining close by to celebrate with his teammates.
He left Arsenal for Fenerbahce soon after having been omitted from the club's 25-man Premier League squad, a steep decline from the kind of expectations both fans and Holding had of him.
