Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Needs To Filter Through Motivations

Arsenal’s relationship with Mesut Ozil is building stronger with each day, but the German needs to figure out what it is he wants before going forward.

Many Gooners out there were struck with Mesut Ozil’s comments about how Arsenal was always going to be his first choice. It reinforced something we can never hear too much of – that Ozil does like it in North London and that if everything goes accordingly, he will stay.

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That’s the big question though. Because very rarely in life does everything go accordingly. There has to be a contingency plan for Mesut Ozil personally if this golden path that he is on starts looking more like pyrite (what an analogy!).

It comes down to a matter of filtering through his motivations and figuring out what he wants most. The ideal road involves this squad winning three major trophies in three years and Ozil loving life and going down in Gunner lore as one of the best to have ever graced the pitch.

But what if he has to choose between some of those? He has mentioned he wants to keep winning major trophies and cement himself as a Balon d’Or candidate (and potentially win it). But he also indicated in his statements that he wants to be a legend for the club.

So what happens if Arsenal continue to hit second place finishes and Ozil starts feeling the nag to hold up a trophy that isn’t the FA Cup?

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It’s a see-saw situation, it feels like. We also have to take into account that Ozil has said he wants to play in Turkey and the United States, so what then? He doesn’t have all the time in the world (although, to be fair, Andrea Pirlo does, so why not Ozil too?).

Ozil will absolutely be a Gunner legend if he stays in North London. There is no doubt about that. His assist numbers are erupting and he is scoring goals now too. He will rank in with some of Wenger’s best ever if he decides he wants to stay.

But if that path does not coincide with his need for trophies, is he willing to leave that behind to ply his trade elsewhere?

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I wonder if he has a timeline in his head, where he has checkpoints to pass on his way towards a new contract or towards committing his future. It can’t be an easy decision to make.