Hardly a day goes by without an update on Mesut Ozil’s future and ongoing contract debacle in the papers and there was yet more speculation over the weekend.
The Daily Mirror were reporting that Ozil has confided in friends about his next move, and they claim the destination is to be Manchester United. A reunion with his former coach Jose Mourinho might be too tempting for him and it looks like he could complete the move to Old Trafford next summer according to the paper. With his contract running down, it’s almost certain he will leave either January or end of season when his current deal expires next summer.
Until yesterday’s confidence boosting win at Goodison Park, things had not been going too well for Ozil and Sanchez, both players struggling to get into any sort of rhythm with injuries hampering any consistency in their game. Fingers crossed that yesterday will now be the start of an assault on the Premier League which looked as though it was slipping away, but we’re now back up there with the big boys and Tottenh*m who play Manchester United next weekend, another chance to make up further ground on them, a draw from the game would be ideal for us (although if they could both somehow lose, that’d be good too!).
Arsene Wenger previously admitted that the pair could leave but still hopes that a deal could still happen before the next transfer windows opens in January:
“Once you are in our kind of situation, we have envisaged every solution yes. It’s possible (they could leave). Both players looked happy here and overall I hope the situation can be turned around. At the moment we are not close enough to announce anything…”
It could also be said that Wenger has tried this season to try his team without the pair having played major roles in many Arsenal games so far, with yesterday being the first time Sanchez, Ozil and Lacazette started a game together for Arsenal.
In more positive news, when asked about Ozil’s move to United yesterday, Wenger said:
“We live in an environment where we have to deal with the news and the players and myself have only always one response, which is what’s happening on the football pitch. When you see Mesut on the football pitch like he is today, enjoying his game like he is today, it’s difficult to believe these kind of things…”
There were also rumours floating around this weekend that Ozil’s friend had said that he wants to stay, and it was also said that this was always the plan for Ozil – not sure if there’s any truth in this but it sounds more positive in his case at least. Sanchez on the other hand has said nothing about staying or leaving, fuelling the fire that this will be his last season for Arsenal.
I think it will be an absolute travesty if Ozil and/or Sanchez are allowed to leave at all, let alone for the tiny sums being bandied about at the moment, imagine a side getting the pair for less than £50m, peanuts to most clubs. If they were to go to any of our Premier League rivals, then questions need to be asked about how this was allowed to happen – Wenger needs to keep them both at all costs and if we do need to cash in, then they need to be sold outside of the Premier League for maximum fees.
