Arsenal: Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez media mess carries significance

Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil missed a media day that they are contractually obliged to appear at. Reportedly, that has angered other members of the Arsenal squad. And rightly so. Such ignorance and arrogance show a lack of team spirit and selfishness that does not put the club first.

Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, if you didn’t already, have entered the final years of their respective contracts. That means that from January they can begin discussing terms, freely, with other clubs, agreeing to terms on a new deal that would start once they leave Arsenal in the summer of 2018. Whichever way you slice it, it is not looking good for the Gunners.

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And this is a scenario that could have been avoided, especially in regards to Sanchez. There were offers made for the Chilean, including a £60 million deadline day bid from Manchester City, who wanted to reunite him with Pep Guardiola, and Arsenal could have accepted it. But with fears over whether they could find a suitable replacement in time, they, eventually, chose to cancel the deal.

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That meant that they were relying on the duo to be committed to the team fully this season. Other than the addition of Alexandre Lacazette, who is a different type of attacker to Sanchez and Ozil — he requires service to score goals, whereas Sanchez can create and score from nothing and Ozil is more akin to being a provider, not a finisher –, no significant investment was made to bolster the attacking options within the squad.

Sanchez and Ozil are the players that Arsene Wenger is depending on to inspire attacking potency in his team. That was always the consequence of refusing to sell. But after it was revealed in a report by the London Evening Standard on Tuesday, there is reason to suggest that neither Ozil nor Sanchez are fully committed to the cause, despite Wenger’s protestations.

Ozil and Sanchez missed a contractually obliged media day that all the Arsenal players were expected to be at. In the aftermath of their conspicuous absence, it has been reported that other players in the squad are furious with the pair, believing that it is a further sign of their wanting to leave this season.

While I always have trepidation for reports about media days, or social media posts, or rifts behind the curtain that the public are rarely exposed to, I am wary of the effects that they can have. And this is one of those cases.

The Arsenal PR department claimed that Sanchez and Ozil were ill. But injured players like Danny Welbeck were at the event, as was Mathieu Debuchy, who is on the very outer-fringe of the squad. Moreover, Sanchez played the full 90 minutes against Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup the night before, and Wenger, in a press conference on the morning of the media event, did not make any mention of illness within the squad. Odd.

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I think it’s fair to conclude that Sanchez and Ozil purposefully missed this media day. Now, a media day is not a football game. Three points are not earned at a media day. Who cares? Right? Well, what their absence does portray is a lack of character and commitment, and that is critical for a dressing room trying to challenge for titles and trophies.