Lee Dixon comments on the ‘sadness’ of Arsenal man’s situation

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Lee Dixon has expressed his hurt on the Handbrake Off Podcast at the current situation Mesut Ozil finds himself in at Arsenal.

The ITV pundit shared that it’s pure ‘sadness’ at Ozil’s predicament because he is ‘one of the most talented footballers’ Arsenal has had on their books.

Mikel Arteta recently stated that it’s ‘very difficult’ for Ozil to break into Arsenal’s side after he left him out of a fourth successive matchday squad following their midweek League Cup win at Leicester City, as he told Sky Sports.

Given what Ozil has produced for the Gunners over the years, Dixon shared how disappointing it is to see the manner in which his career is ending in North London.

“But the fact that Ozil is in a position where he is on £350k-a-week and almost saying to the club ‘whatever, I’ll just stay here and I’ll earn my money’,” Dixon told the Handbrake Off Podcast.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of it, personally, and all the real detail to it. But it’s pretty obvious what’s going on and has gone on. To the point where the manager and the club are in a position where this player, this sadness of it is absolutely there, and read between the lines of the sadness because it is said.

“He’s a hugely talented footballer and one of the most talented footballers we have had on the books, there’s no doubt about that. Some of the sublime beauty we have seen from his feet and his interplay has been ‘wow’. Breathtaking. That’s the sadness of it that he cannot get to a point where he wants to play football and that’s the most important thing. And ultimately, that’s not the most important thing, so that’s why he is where he is at.”

What doesn’t help Ozil’s situation is where Arsenal currently are, what they have achieved under Arteta and where they are seemingly headed.

Unai Emery took a similar stance with the artistic German, but when things started to go wrong, he brought Ozil back into the fold.

It doesn’t seem as though Arteta will go down the same road as his predecessor because he has been pretty consistent with his decision-making, and unlike Emery, it now seems that Arsenal are heading somewhere and it doesn’t feel like false hope.