Paul Merson has admitted that it’s a shame that Arsenal have turned their back on Mesut Ozil.
The 32-year-old’s career in North London is coming to a slow and painful end after Mikel Arteta left him out of his revised Premier League squad last week.
With his contract expiring next summer, it’s very possible that Ozil will never kick a ball for Arsenal again.
The former Real Madrid maestro was a first-team regular under Arteta prior to last season being suspended in March, but he hasn’t been seen in a competitive game since.
The Arsenal boss has insisted that football reasons are linked to his omission [Evening Standard], but former Gunners star Merson has told Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports that it simply has to go deeper than that.
Asked about Arteta’s rationale, Merson said: “I can’t see how it’s football reasons. The lad is too talented, he’s too good. I could understand if this was the Invincible team, but this is the Arsenal of today.
“For me, him not getting a number has to be more than football. People say he doesn’t run around but that wasn’t his job – his job was to make things happen on the football pitch. He’s a special player and it’s a shame we’re not going to see him play now. An absolute shame.”
The problem with Ozil is that we’re going to be speaking about him on a regular basis from now until the day he leaves.
When Arsenal pick up a bad result, inevitably the focus of conversation will focus on whether Arteta was right to leave a World Cup winner like him out of the squad.
Then again, the Emirates Stadium side have been getting horrible results even with Ozil in the first XI down the years, so it is a tad disingenuous to pretend he’s some sort of elite, world-class player who gives 100 percent everytime he pulls on a shirt.
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