It’s an open secret that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is trying to offload Mesut Ozil before the new Premier League season kicks off. But it seems like the manager might not succeed in this endeavour.
Ozil still has one more year left on his current deal at the Emirates and in a recent interview, he revealed that he has every intention of honouring his contract in full.
He told The Athletic: “My position is clear. I’m here through to the last day of our agreement and I’ll give everything I have for this club.
“Situations like these will never break me, they only make me stronger. I showed in the past that I can come back into the team and I will show it again.
“I can’t talk about my private conversations with the coach. But I can tell you I know my body well. I was fit enough to play every game before the break and, apart from a small injury, it was the same after.
“My daughter was born while we were off so maybe I was not always sleeping perfectly, but this is normal. I actually had more energy and excitement to play because of her.
“As a player, you sometimes have bad days and can’t always be happy, especially if you’re not playing. When you know how good you are and you know you’re not going to be picked, it’s hard to be at 100 per cent and, of course, you can get disappointed.
“This is my profession, it’s what I love doing: being on the pitch, playing matches, showing the people, helping the club and my team.
“I fully respect the coach’s decision but I believe these things should mainly be decided on the pitch. After the restart, I wasn’t given a chance to show what I can do. You don’t play 10 games in a row if you’re unfit, not good enough or don’t behave well.
“If I played these games badly and was then left out completely for that reason then I might understand, but this was not the case.”
This will be a major headache for the Arsenal boss since Mesut Ozil is currently the highest-earning player in the Arsenal squad and if Arteta cannot offload him then he will find it really difficult to free up money and bring in players like Thomas Partey.
Arsenal have unofficially put the player up for sale but right now there are no big clubs who want to buy Mesut Ozil.
