Arsenal: Mesut Ozil question tough, but absolutely necessary

Arsenal are facing down some tough contractual decisions, but none are tougher than what exactly they plan on paying Mesut Ozil.

Arsenal has a lot to address this summer, mainly in terms of contracts, and it is not off to a good start. Numerous players have been “prepared” to sign a deal only for the reports to head south and morph into that same player being linked with an exit.

With Mesut Ozil, there hasn’t been as much stress as their has been with Alexis Sanchez. Or even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. And the Guardian hit the reason why right on the head. Who else wants Mesut Ozil enough to give him the deal Arsenal are considering giving him?

It sounds harsh and cruel and it is absolutely a tough question to ask of one of our own, but it has to be asked. Who else actually wants him? I mean, inevitably there are a ton of teams, but how many teams that he would actually go to? Champions League teams that will give Ozil a chance at all of the ambitious heights he wants to hit?

He isn’t going to go to just any team out there. He wants to be in a place that is on the main stage and allows him to remain as one of the top creative minds in the world. You can’t do that buried on a mid-table Bundesliga team, or from Turkey or MLS.

Not only that, but it takes a special kind of set up to make Ozil work. I would say that no other Premier League team would find Ozil’s presence that promising. It’s a physical league that leans on strength and speed, the raw skills. Ozil doesn’t use those. Arsene Wenger has been guilty of building this club around Ozil and that has largely failed them.

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When he switched to the 3-4-2-1, against Ozil’s wishes, the team improved. Ozil did too, statistically, but he still prefers the set up build around him.

If no other major team out there is willing to give Ozil what he wants, then why should Arsenal? Why should they spend world class money on a guy that can’t get that money anywhere else? With Alexis it’s different obviously because there is literally a line of representatives of different teams following him around, promising him everything he wants to hear.

Not with Ozil. No one has really been pursuing him, despite the fact that he only has a year left on his deal.

I have been outspokenly against the reliance on Ozil recently, and from Arsenal’s standpoint, I remain in that point of view. Don’t overpay him if you don’t have to. I have trouble believing that the Gunners wouldn’t be just as well off with Alexis and Thomas Lemar as the attacking midfield two, or with Emil Forsberg or James Rodriguez.

Next: 3 Reasons Mesut Ozil Will Stay

Ozil has his magic moments and he plays a beautiful style, but he isn’t of that irreplaceable variety that merits locking down with a massive new deal.

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