If you read @Trion’ post and the fact he (Ozil) thought he was going to stay at Madrid on 28 august, it’s not unfair too say we were his only option at that particular point. Especially since teams had already done their business (Bayern signing Gotze earlier that same summer f.e.).
It’s true that if it weren’t for Wenger, Ozil might not have come here, but it is also true that all our best players before him, also left us, possibly because of Wenger’s stubbornness on unwillingness to spend.
He has persuaded a lot of players to come here, and then when they become so good that bigger, more ambitious clubs, become interested, he couldn’t keep them here.
If that were true, we must have been the most attractive of those other teams.
But I doubt if any of those other clubs had been Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Man City, Man U, or what ever club that had several world class players already, that Ozil would have chosen us over them.
When he came here we had no world class players and Cazorla was our best player, and we had Giroud, Sanogo and Podolski as our strikers, so if he had the choice between them and say, Messi, Suarez and Neymar, it’s pretty obvious that we wouldn’t be his first choice.
I don’t what Wenger said to him to persuade him, but if it was something like, I will be buying a world class striker for you to play alongside, then it could be the reason why he is considering his options and is still waiting to sign his new contract.
@InvincibleDB10, fair enough, like you said as well, Wenger still plays a big part in getting players for us.
Yeah true. Was that not just bog standard PR though?
I want Ozil to stay. If that means Arsene stays too, then so be it.
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Yeah, it was. The Özil move was brewing way before this. There were leaks in the club to media members in Spain in July that he was going to be sold, because his father was annoying the club with his requests for a better contract and in general with his influence on Özil, and threatening to make a move. The Özil move definitely was not something that was decided right at the end after they’d signed Bale, and I forget who but it was reported by reliable media members that feelers had been sent to United earlier in the summer too but that Moyes wasn’t interested because he wanted to get the best out of Kagawa.
The idea that Özil was surplus to requirements at Madrid is silly, tbh, all things being equal I’m quite sure they would’ve held onto him over Di María, but Di María was the one who showed the better attitude, who caused the least problems for the club with his agent/people close to him, and who wanted to fight for his place, so he stayed.
That said, while I definitely think Wenger played a big part in selling him on Arsenal, and on making it an attractive proposition for him, I also don’t think we’ll ever know what would’ve happened if United had come in for him. Would the Wenger factor and the feeling that Arsenal suited him outweigh United being the biggest club in England? We’ll never know really.
So I think it was definitely a case of a combination of Wenger selling him on the club, but also that they’re not being obviously better options.
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I remember those reports plus him being a party person as well but considering how professional & classy Ozil has behaved ever since he has joined Arsenal, do you still believe there is any truth to those reports or just Real trying to avoid backlash from fans.
This sums it up. I didn’t think there was much scope for debate on this issue.
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He was younger when he was with Madrid. He definitely liked to party a bit but not really any more than his peers at Madrid. That said I have more than a couple friends who ran into him at night spots here in Madrid, if I had been interested in meeting him it was not too hard to find him. The lack of professionalism stuff was just Florentino and co. being clever and trying to make the move look more justifiable/better from their standpoint/decrease backlash. It wasn’t down to lack of professionalism at all, it was just that his dad was angling for a move/better contract, and Mesut/his dad/people around him didn’t have the same desire to compete for a spot, which is totally fair on both ends, really, as he deserved a bumper contract and also deserved to not have to compete for his spot in that squad.
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Do you seriously think when selling a £42million asset Real Madrid didn’t call around every big in club in Europe asking them if they were interested in bidding?
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I wonder what kind of bond Mourinho and Ozil currently have. It would be so disgusting if he would choose to work with him again.
Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil held a meeting with Fenerbahce over a possible transfer to the club in the future, according to reports in Turkey.
Stopped reading at ‘metro’.
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Fenerbache? Lol pub team in a pub league
Surely the only time a player like Ozil would move to Turkey is when he’s about 35 in the final year of his career.
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These rumours have been around a few years. He’s supposedly a Fenerbahce fan and he seems to me like the kind of person who would like to play in Turkey…For his team.
Won’t have to worry about this for years though…You know, If he stays that is.
I have a feeling Ozil career will go down a similar route to Sneijder in that he ends up in Turkey a lot sooner than he should for a lot of reasons.
What is a good age to go to Turkey anyways? It’s a arbitrary line imo. Although Sneijder was very young, he had already won everything.
An age where you are no longer good enough to compete in one of the top European leagues.
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Which is a bit overrated, imo, if you’d have, like Sneijder, been Champion in three countries and won the Champions League already.