Ray Parlour has claimed that the departed trio Saed Kolasinac, Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi were ‘upsetting’ the Arsenal dressing room during their time at the club, as he told talkSPORT.
The Arsenal legend added that ‘there was a lot of deadwood’ at the club and it ‘wasn’t good for the dressing room’ – all three have since left.
A lot of changes have been made, both on and off the field, including dipping out of Europe for the first time in nearly three decades, before making a return to the Europa League ahead of the new campaign.
Champions League football is still the aim, and that goal hasn’t been reached yet, but Arteta will be hoping his young, hungry and ever-progressing side can do the business next season.
Nonetheless, when Parlour was talking about Arsenal’s past troubles, he was pretty forthright in his feelings towards certain players.
“He’s totally right (on Edu saying he’s got rid of deadwood),” said Parlour. “There was a lot of deadwood in the squad. Mustafi, as you mentioned. Kolasinac, who was there. Ozil.
“There was a little click. They were all hanging out together and it wasn’t good for the dressing room. There are certain times when you have to make big decisions as clubs and say ‘right. I have got to write a cheque’.
“You don’t want to write a cheque to get rid of a player. But we have to because he is upsetting the dressing room and that’s what they did.”
ARTETA WAS RIGHT ABOUT OZIL
Ozil is the most interesting one because, during Mikel Arteta’s first full season in charge, he decided to leave out the German international from his Premier League squad.
This despite the Gunners struggling and seriously needing creative talent, at the time, but Arteta stuck to his guns and Ozil headed for the exit door in January.
He was pretty clear that he didn’t want the left-footed playmaker part of his squad and there was a lot of noise around his controversial call.
Fast forward to the present and Arteta has been vindicated by that decision because Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe are thriving in that creative role.
Whilst Ozil’s contract at Fenerbahce has been terminated after he was axed from the squad towards the back end of last season.
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