Arsenal: Mesut Ozil now needs to justify number change

Mesut Ozil has been given Jack Wilshere’s number 10. It is the playmaking number, it is the most famous number in the history of the sport, it is the number that Ozil has coveted for some time. Now, the Arsenal midfielder must justify it.

The number 10 position. It is the most famed in the game. The reverence that is afforded the very phrase, the greatness that exudes from the annuals, the brilliance of the sport can be squashed into a series of staggering players all to have pulled on the double-figured number.

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Mesut Ozil has never said why the number 10 is so special to him. Obviously, he has his hashtag, #M10 that he uses on his social media channels. There is also the crossover of the 0 and the ‘o’ in his name with an umlaut. And then there is his hero, Zinedine Zidane, perhaps the most famous number 10 in the history of the game not named Diego Maradona.

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All of this has led to Ozil’s veering obsession with the number. I’m not sure I quite understand it. But for Ozil, there is a special element to the number 10 shirt that every other number cannot replicate. And so, for him, it will be significant that Arsenal instantly handed it to him when Jack Wilshere chose to relinquish it with the expiration of his contract this summer.

The number change means very little to most people. As it should do. What number they play in should not affect a player’s psyche to the extent that it has an impact on their performance on the pitch. No competitive sportsperson is that mentally fragile. They have not got where they are in the sport that they are in without showing resolve and determination, more so than the distraction and decrementation of being forced to wear a different number.

But what it does for Ozil, a player who has idolised this number as much as the players who have shouldered it, is label him as Arsenal’s chief creator, the key piece of the attack, the cornerstone of the team, the shining star on which everything will be hung.

Zidane could handle that responsibility. So could Maradona. Dennis Bergkamp, too. I am not so sure that Ozil has the capacity to match the consistency of their greatness, the breadth of their shoulders, the shine of their brilliance.

There have been two primary critiques of Ozil’s obsession with this number. The first is that it shouldn’t matter. It’s just a number, after all. It may seem a little accommodating to let him have his quirks, but I have no problem in Ozil wanting the number, even if I see no significance in it myself. But the other question asked of his number-10 desire is a more nuanced and challenging one, one that points to Ozil’s play on the pitch, not his motivations off it.

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Does he deserve the greatest number that this sport has to offer? Does he deserve to stand in the halls of the greats, rubbing shoulders with his heroes, emulating the most brilliant players to have ever kicked a ball? That is a more pointed remark on Ozil and his ability. I guess he will have to prove that he is.